


Take My Damn Hand

by Tuli_Azzameen



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Rey has acquired the sexiest damn parasite in the galaxy, Reylo - Freeform, Save Ben Solo, Semi-Crack, Smartass!Ben, flesh and blood Ben, getting seriously meta with this one, salty narrator, thirsty!rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:08:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22635688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuli_Azzameen/pseuds/Tuli_Azzameen
Summary: Tongue-in-cheek chaser to TRoS. Ben finds the path back to the mortal worlds, and the waiting arms of his soulmate. But it turns out there's a pretty big catch. They wanted to be together. They’re about to get about as much togetherness as they can stand.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 230
Kudos: 299





	1. The Force Fucked Up

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE: This story started as a one-shot (still posted as "The Rise of Skywalker, Post Credits Bonus Scene, Extended, X-Rated Edition"), written within hours of watching TRoS. This is a longer, rehashed, much more slow-burning version of that tale, with some fourth-wall cracking commentary on the incompetent story telling of TRoS.

She had kissed him. Actually kissed him! His heart was soaring higher and faster than the Falcon ever had. She had kissed him, and she was smiling as if she adored him. He had never been so happy in his entire life. A joy so powerful, it overtook everything else. Years of evil and misery, the pain of broken bones and massive internal injuries, all of it overtaken, overrun, overpowered by this deluge of pure, perfect happiness. It was all worth it. All worth it.

And then he saw nothing but black. Just a vast, empty expanse. 

"Oh shit...” The expletive came out as a low murmur of dismay.

That was when Ben Solo realized he had just died.

He knew he was risking this, healing her while suffering both physical and spiritual wounds himself. He knew he might die. But what choice did he have? Live in a galaxy knowing that she was gone, or even worse, living in a galaxy without her and knowing he could have saved her? In truth, it was a choice he willingly made, but it certainly didn't feel like one. The  _ right thing _ often doesn’t.

He knew there was a good chance that he would die, but that didn’t mean that he did not hope for better. 

The all powerful Will of the Force had a well known tendency toward implausible coincidences and last minute rescues, especially when it came to the Skywalker lineage. It was always heavy-handedly steering events toward some cosmic destiny that they seemed to be needed for. How could Ben have predicted that it would suddenly turn to some thoughtless liquid, flowing boringly down the path of least resistance? The Force had chosen the laziest possible path for him, snatching away all of that hard-earned happiness and moral purpose. For what? The finality of wiping his occursed family off the face of the galaxy? The family it had literally created? The Force could have put in some damn effort into its own damn project!

Ben knew he might die, but that didn't mean he wasn't extremely dissatisfied with this outcome. His mind jumped away from its existential musing, back to the situation at hand.

Contrary to logic, this wasn’t even the World Between Worlds. He was dead-dead.

“FuckFUCKFFUUUUCK!” The low murmur of dismay raised to a bellow of fury and anguish. 

So close. So fucking close. Palpatine had finally been excised from his psyche. Rey had professed her feelings for him. He'd made his peace with his father. He had a whole damn moment of completely untainted happiness. 

But... At least Rey was alive. Ben felt the tense rage fall away with a long, exhaled sigh. If he had to go out, this wasn’t such a bad way, saving the girl he -

Just as he was coming to this most comforting of thoughts, he saw an anomaly in the darkness. A man walking toward him, across an ethereal path. A familiar man. His uncle and would-be murderer.

Ben felt his teeth grind together. “Figures,” he said, all bitter resignation. “I deserve this, don’t I? To spend all of eternity with someone I hate just as much as he hates me.” Suddenly, that anguish and overwhelming disappointment washed over him again. To be stuck with his treacherous uncle, when he could have been with Rey.  _ Should _ have been with Rey. Ben let out a howl of rage that wouldn't have been out of place from a wounded animal.

Luke just stood their placidly, as if waiting for a child's tantrum to subside.

“You know I don’t hate you, kid.”

Ben scoweld. “Evidence to the contrary.”

Luke sighed. “Did you think that you and my father had a monopoly on all of the stupid decisions in our family?” Luke said with a smug smile that just begged to be punched into his damn face. “But, to get straight to the point, I think I may be able to help you.”

The hot, roiling resentment came to an abrupt, frozen hault. “What?”

“There is a path back, for you.”

Even as his eyes narrowed skeptically, he felt his lips twitching toward a smile. Dared he hope… “How?”

“The Dyad, of course,” Luke said, almost snidely. As if any idiot would know that.

“What exactly is that? All I know is that it’s rare and powerful.”

“Oh, its, um, a thing…" Luke trailed off evasively. 

Ben was too excited to notice or care about the non-answer. His heart was pounding in his chest, imagining Rey’s smile if he were to - but… “Did I disappear?”

Luke nodded.

“Fuck,” Ben groaned, heart crashing back into the pit of his stomach. “Then what is there to resurrect?! You can’t make  _ something _ from  _ nothing _ !”

His uncle shot him a patient smile. “Are you really going to argue  _ physics? _ In  _ this _ galaxy? Breaking those laws is practically the main thing the Force does."

And then suddenly his heart was leaping for joy again. “How?!” he demanded eagerly. 

“You’ve been so busy feeling sorry for yourself, you haven’t noticed, have you?” Luke gestured to a strange and vaguely glowing beam, like a scarlet laser through fog, extending out into the nothingness.

“Follow it,” Luke said. "The journey will not be easy, but it is possible to get through."

“And that will - ?” Ben asked breathlessly.

Luke gave a sagely nod. There was something absurdly affected about it. Like an old grouch  _ pretending _ to be sagely. “The power of The Dyad brought Palpatine back from the brink of death, and he wasn’t even directly connected to it. Of course, it’s far more powerful for you. You share a soul.”

Ben took a step toward the beam, but halted, looking back at his uncle.

“Why? Why would you help  _ me _ ? I practically killed you.”

There was that smug smile again, now strangely less punchable. “My entire adult life, people have been calling me a hero. It’s about time I started acting like it.” He paused. “And your mother will kick my ass if I don’t.”

* * *

Rey walked into one of the less-buried rooms of the Lars Homestead. Even so, there was a thick layer of sand on the floor. It didn’t matter though. She’d only be here for a night.

“Guard the ship,” she called out to her droid companion. She set a tarp over the sand, and laid out her bed roll, trying desperately not to think. That was how she had lived, the last several days. Not thinking. 

Improvised parties. Funerals. Tense meetings. Endless empty questions about where she would found the new Jedi Temple. Finn pestering her to begin his training. Listening to others disgorge their traumatic and more rarely, thrilling narratives of what everyone had been upto, while she….

She saved the galaxy. That was what people were saying, anyway.

That was worth any sacrifice, wasn’t it? A feat that anyone should be proud of. The greatest victory anyone could ever achieve.

But if that was the case, then why did she feel so desolate _? _

“Ben,” she whispered. She hadn’t allowed herself to really think about him. How could she? His loss was like a gaping wound just beyond a tight tourniquet. Something that had to be utterly cut off, lest she bleed to death. 

But now - now that she’d laid the tragic legacy to rest, and taken her new name, the thoughts just wouldn’t go away.

She hadn’t seen him, when she buried the sabers. She was sure, SURE that he would be there, that she would see his smiling face one last time, peering across the desert at her, at peace along with his family. But not even that. 

She reached into her pack, pulling out a black bundle. She had no idea why she’d been carrying it around with her. She hadn’t taken it out until now.

The tunic and trousers were wrinkled. Without so much as a flutter of shame, she lifted the bundle to her nose, burying her face in the cloth, the smooth leather of his trouser belt, pressed against her cheek. A smell was like a ghost, in a way.

But that wasn’t there either. They smelled like dust and ozone. Like the planet he’d clawed his way out of to reach her. Like the planet he’d died on.

It came on her all at once. She all but literally howled, body convulsing in spasms of sobs, clutching the bundle to her chest. To her heart.

* * *

Rey dreamt she was pacing up a long aisle of violet, in a gown of white. She wore a lace headdress, with ropes of pearls dangling at her temples, and cascading down her back. Over each shoulder was a tabard beaded with even more pearls, hanging down to her toes in front, and also trailing several meters behind her. Under that, a wide silk gown, with a pintuck web of alternating embroidered symbols. Jedi. Sith. Jedi. Sith.

The room was enormous, hung with glittering swags, and huge sprays of lilies the size of a grown man. But even with such finery, she recognized what this place was. If there was anything Rey knew, it was the inside of a star destroyer, and she was in a hangar.

There were people by the thousands, not sitting like in weddings she'd seen in holos. Standing at attention. She spotted Finn and Poe up front, in their dress leathers. Rose stood beside them, dressed in a sparkling blue gown. On the other side of the aisle, she spotted an uptight-looking man with slicked red hair.

But a thousand times more interesting, was the man, standing atop the dais. Ben was dressed in black velvet, with a gorgeous filigree decorative breastplate. His cape was lined in tiny glittering beads, and attached at his shoulders by bright chrome epaulettes, one depicting a First Order sunburst, and the other, a Rebel firebird. His collar was high and stiff, with a black lace ruff that framed his face. His radiantly smiling face. A very specific sort of smile. The tremulous grin of a man trying desperately  _ not _ to smile, and failing miserably.

Step by step, Rey ascended the dais stairs, eyes fixed on his outstretched hand. With a fluid, delicate movement worthy of some fancy ballet, Rey's white satin glove, met Ben's black one, fingers curling around one another.

* * *

And then she woke, eyes filled with the salt of her dried tears. Turning over, she rubbed the misery from her face.

What she saw wasn’t actually surprising. He was there. Next to her in bed, eyes lightly shut and laying on his side, in apparently untroubled slumber.

Rey’s mind, still hazy from sleep, came to the immediate and unassailable conclusion that she was still dreaming, after all. There was literally no possible way this was real. As her eyes took in the long, well-formed body beside her, she came to the added conclusion that this was a very nice dream. He was completely naked. 

_ Don’t wake up,  _ she commanded herself.

The perfectly formed muscles of his chest rose and fell softly as he breathed, and one of his arms was tucked under her head, very much as if they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, and had shifted only slightly during the night. Her eyes continued down, resting on his cock, lolling lazily against his thigh. Her mind instantly jumped to wondering what it looked like when aroused.

This was just a dream wasn’t it? An idyllic vision of what might have been, had fate not been so cruel. She just dreamed their wedding. This had to be the morning after… Though it did seem a little weird that after such an absurdly lavish ceremony, they'd end up at the Lars Homestead. Whatever. 

_ Don't wake up _ , she told herself again. 

This  _ was _ only a dream. She lifted a hand, placing it on the smooth, warm skin of his hip. A lucid dream. She had some control over her actions. How to wake him though? Having very little idea what she was doing, and still fully convinced that this wasn’t real, she allowed her hand to descend, fingertips grazing the manly down around his -

He stirred, and dream or not, she lost her nerve completely, pulling her hand away. Her eyes fixed on his face, watching intently as his eyes opened, blinking slowly, like a contented lothcat. A smile spread across his sensuous mouth as his dark eyes focused on her. She felt her lips pull into a reflected grin, and for a long moment, they just gazed at each other.

_ Don’t wake up _ , Rey thought furiously. This dream was obviously about to get a whole lot better.

But what he said was a little incongruous with a sexy fantasy. “It worked.” His grin widened into that radiant smile, and he chuckled slightly. “I got through.” He paused, placing a large hand on the side of her face. “I followed the bond -”

Rey wasn’t exactly listening. She didn’t want to listen. He was  _ explaining _ . Logic, that was, the realization that nothing made sense, usually signaled the end of a dream. She would not let that happen if she could help it, so she shut him up in the only way she could think of.

In a swift, decisive motion, she attempted to pull him into a kiss. Of course, he was so massive that he didn’t actually move, so she ended up more using him as leverage to pull herself into his kiss. Just as before, his arms instantly found their way around her. 

His lips were a little different. Warm and silky smooth, not split from fighting and chapped from dust. She opened her mouth slightly against his, as women did in the sexy holobooks she sometimes read, and one of his hands slid upwards, huge fingers buried in her loose hair, pressing their faces even closer together. This, and the sure knowledge that none of this was real anyway, emboldened her even further, and she gave his lips just the slightest sweep of tongue. He made a noise then; something between a hum of pleasure and the eager growl of a beast, about to kill. That was strangely thrilling. The hand that was still resting on her back slid downward, firmly cupping her ass, pulling their bodies much closer. Rey became exquisitely aware of something warm and hard, pressed flush against her stomach.

But he let go almost immediately, as if he’d forgotten himself. Ben leaned away, searching her face. It took her a moment to realize that he was waiting for some sort of verbal encouragement. There was only one thing that Rey was capable of saying at the moment. “Don’t wake up,” she sighed.

He smiled at her, a broad, toothy smile, as if she’d said something funny. “What?” 

Rey repeated herself, and he frowned.

“Rey, you  _ are _ awake.”

She shook her head, not really hearing him. “Nonono,” she whimpered, convinced that she was about to plunge back toward her forlorn reality.

“I’m really here.”

Rey considered that, running her hand down his very solid and real-feeling arm. She then came to the next most logical conclusion. Clearly she had gone insane. All of the fear and loneliness and trauma had finally hit home, and she had lost her mind. However, she found herself remarkably untroubled by this notion, lying in the arms of a naked and amorous Ben Solo, as she was. If this was psychosis, she would take that over sanity any day.

Ben then launched into a more detailed explanation though, recounting all that Luke had told him, and the apparently arduous and painful journey back through the border between this world and the next.

What he said made sense. Or at least, it made as much sense as any of the bizarre events of the past week. But it still seemed too good to be true.

Just then Beebee-Ate rolled in, gave a brief greeting, and then launched into a distressed series of beeps, demanding to know who the intruder was, and if she required assistance in subduing him.

Droids didn’t hallucinate.

“You’re really here?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yes, I’m really here,” he answered, grinning warmly at her.

That was all she needed to hear. She threw herself forward against his chest, her arms tight around him, laughing and crying at the same time. He was laughing too, leaning in and resting his forehead on hers. They stayed like that for a while before either spoke. Laughing and crying and holding each other. The morning suns rose in the aperture of the open doorway, perfectly in sync, lined up, one behind the other in a gleaming halo around the two lovers.

“Ben?” Without thinking, her hand found its way into his hair, fingers languidly combing through the silky locks.

“Hmm?”

“There’s something you need to know,” she whispered softly, looking deep into his fathomless eyes.

“And what’s that?” he whispered, pulling her closer.

“You’re naked.”

“Right,” he said quietly, and leaned away, studied her face for a moment, and then looked at his own body, no doubt spotting the rather conspicuous phallus jutting enthusiastically from his hips. “RIGHT,” he said more emphatically.

The two formerly star-crossed lovers disentangled themselves, rising to a more dignified standing position. Rey gestured to the black bundle with her eyes, and then dutifully let them fall to the ground as he began to slip on his trousers. 

Even so, peripheral vision provided a mouthwatering eyefull, enough to partially answer her wondered question from earlier. He then turned his back on her, and she caught sight of the luscious swell of his ass, as he slid the trousers up over it. She couldn’t help noticing that, upfront, he was clearly rearranging himself before fastening the garment. Her lips pursed in a suppressed giggle.

He turned to face her, still grinning. “Better?”

_ Better _ was not the word Rey would have used. “Less distracting,” she said honestly.    


And then they were back to gazing at each other. It seemed to go on for minutes at a time, and yet didn’t feel at all weird. Not when he was smiling at her like that. Kriff, where had that smile  _ been _ all her life? If he had flashed that enchanting expression at her just once during any of his several ill-worded and ill-timed proposal speeches, she wasn’t sure she could have resisted.

As she thought this, she realized that something wasn’t right. Was he slightly transparent? Ordinarily, she always had a knack for  _ seeing right through him _ , but it was far too literal at the moment. She could just barely see through his body, to the room behind. “Ben!” she shrieked, practically diving for him. 

Oh the unimaginable relief she felt along with his reassuringly solid hand! “Sorry, I thought - must have been the lighting.” She released him, and wiped away the tears of panic with the heel of her hand. But in barely the span of a relieved sigh, she could see it again. He was becoming transparent. “No!” she yelped, seizing his hand again. And just like that, he was back. “What -”

There was a confused frown on his face, and he anticipated what she was going to say. “You’re not imagining it. I felt it.” The frown of confusion turned to one of annoyance, and his voice raised to a shout. “Does  _ someone _ want to tell me what the hell is going on here?!”

Sure enough, Master Skywalker appeared before them, looking mildly amused. “Interesting,” he commented blandly.

“What. The hell. Is happening?” Ben growled.

“You didn’t think there would be a  _ price _ ?” Luke inquired condescendingly. 

Ben just glared furiously. 

Luke shook his head. “This isn’t one-sided Sith magic, kid. You and Rey are  _ one _ . Therefore there is a price she must pay to bring you back as well.” He paused. “Ben, you are now essentially dependent on her life-force. She is your only link to the living world.” Luke paused again, spending several seconds in thought. “Dyads are vanishingly rare, so there is very little we know for sure about them. Conferring with my fellow souls, we haven’t been able to confirm any other cases as strong as yours.”

Rey’s mind reacted to this information much as if it had been presented with some new problem. A puzzle to be solved. A device to be fixed. "We have to touch to keep Ben alive?”

Luke smiled uncomfortably. “I suppose the need for physical touch in your case might owe to the - um -, “ he cleared his throat, “  _ physicality _ of your particular bond. Who knows how romantic  _ love  _ plays into this."

That word. Love. It had been said. Not by either of them, but it had been  _ said _ . That word with all of its sociocultural significance. That word, so closely associated with other words, like  _ forever _ ,  _ partnership, marriage, family. _ She felt her eyes flick up towards Ben’s face, and saw that his pale cheeks were splashed with a rather adorable blush. And then they were staring at each other again. 

Luke clapped his hands together. “Focus you two, sheesh! Save the making bantha’s eyes at each other for when I’m  _ not  _ right here.”

The formerly star-crossed lovers obeyed, snapping out of their amorous daze. Ben was the first one to speak. “So, I need her touch to live?” he paused, glancing at Rey again. “That doesn’t sound  _ so _ bad.” 

Luke continued with his explanation. “The best analogy my associates could come up with was a  _ battery _ .”

Ben blinked. “So, I am a  _ human battery?” _

“Essentially yes. Rey’s touch seems to act as a conductor of her life-force into you. I'd imagine that the longer you touch, the more  _ charged _ you get. With enough of a charge, you can function for brief periods, without direct contact, but as long as you are apart, your battery is  _ draining. _ If you run out of  _ charge _ completely, physical death is the result.”

"Can I just come back again?"

"Not really sure." There was something distinctly evasive about Luke's face, eyes darting around, as if looking for a door he no longer needed. "Do you  _ want  _ to risk dying again?"

"He'd _ better not  _ die again," Rey ordered emphatically. She wasn't sure she could  _ take it _ .

Luke sucked his teeth. “As I said, we have only the barest anecdotal evidence to go on, regarding this phenomenon." He paused. “I’d best be going. By the way, Ben, your mother sends her love. She’s still getting the hang of being dead, and promises that you two will have a chance to catch up soon.”

With that, the bluish ghost of Luke Skywalker vanished. 

Rey considered the situation for a moment, particularly the idea of losing him again. She looked at Ben. “I have an idea,” she told him, releasing his shoulder. She then immediately realized that she shouldn’t do that. “I need to get something out of my pocket. Put your hand on me,” she felt her face flush at her own choice of words, “on my arm or something.”

He obliged, and she reached into her pocket. It was still there, the bit of red cloth from her training exercise a few very long days ago, faded slightly from the wash. She then reached up, taking Ben by one meaty wrist, and placing her hand against his, palm-to-palm. With her other hand, she began the awkward task of wrapping the cloth around their joined hands, in an act of absurdly obvious symbolism. “I don’t want to risk losing you in a careless moment. This should be a good reminder that we need to stay together.”

* * *

Luke returned to the ethereal plane, with his fellow spirits waiting for him. Or actually, they weren’t  _ really _ waiting for him. They weren't really  _ there _ in any physical sense. However, in the mind’s eye of someone still accustomed to mortal existence, they could have been conceptualized as standing in a loose cluster, heads turning to watch his approach. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi was the first to step forward, and speak. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he declared piously. “Showing him the path back. It was the Will of the Force that he die, and the two of them separated.”

Master Yoda approached in an exaggerated hobble. “Well, fuck up, the Force did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:   
> "Salty Bickering"


	2. Salty Bickering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because he's renounced Kylo Ren, doesn't mean he's not still kind of a jerk.

"What do we do now?” Rey asked, willing herself not to look at the bedroll.

“Anything we want.” His smile widened. “We can go anywhere. Do anything. Literally anything. Anything you want, I could give it to you,” he told her, dark eyes bright with excitement.

She felt her lips curl in reflected happiness. “I _do_ have to be getting back soon.”

The excitement on his face seemed to drain. “ _Back_?”

“You didn’t actually think I planned to stay _here_ , did you?” Rey inquired, unable to keep a little mocking out of her tone. Why the _hell_ would she stay _here?_ Alone in the desert, just like she'd started? She literally could not think of a more depressing fate for herself, if she tried. “I just came here to bury the sabers and say goodbye -”

His face, so alight with joy a moment ago, darkened with disappointment, a far away look in his eyes. “To my mother and uncle.” He stopped there, but with their linked minds, his subtext was crystal clear. _To say goodbye to my mother and uncle, and not to_ me _._

Rey’s temper blazed up at his insinuation, and she pulled her hands from his. “And _how_ exactly was I supposed to say _goodbye_ to _you_ ?! You might as well ask me to say goodbye to _myself_!” Her tears, still lingering so near the surface, reemerged. “You have no idea what I went through, when I lost you!”

“Actually, I do.”

Rey’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you mean when _I_ was dead?! That whole thirty seconds of mourning you had to -” she stopped short, as Ben pulled her into a tight embrace, face pressed against his hard, still-bare shoulders and chest. She could feel one of his nipples nudging against her chin.

 _What_ were they arguing about again?

"I've lived through a lot of shit, Rey," he said, solemn and earnest. "But finding you there, dead…" he trailed off when his voice began to crack.

 _He died for me,_ she reminded herself. Her arms found their way around him. _This man died for me._

She closed her eyes and imagined what that must have looked like. The sudden look of peace and determination that must have passed across his face, as the man who had lived through so much, decided to lay down his own life to save the girl who he had so many reasons to despise. A scavenger nobody, heir to the man who had ruined his life in every way that mattered, and the nemesis who had dealt him several humiliating defeats and heartbreaking rejections. And he _still_ died for her.

On a whim, she placed a quick kiss on his collarbone, and nuzzled against his neck. She could feel his hands against her back. His fingers were actually fisted in her clothes, as if he was afraid she would slip through them.

"Rey…" he breathed into her hair. Rey began to consider that her bedroll was still out, and barely half a meter away. She thought about it. And thought about it. But didn't quite have the nerve. And besides, they'd inevitably be sleeping in the same bed later...

After a good five minutes of silent canoodling, they began gathering up the few belongings Rey had brought. And he put on his shirt, complete with its singed hole.

“I don’t suppose you grabbed my boots?” Ben inquired. 

“No…” She hadn’t thought about it, back on Exegol. She had grasped desperately at his empty clothes after he disappeared, and just kind of didn’t let them go. 

She only just took notice of his pale toes, half-sunk in the sand. Kriff, his feet were _huge…_.

He smiled at her. “We can figure that out later, I guess.”

Hand-in-hand, they stepped out of the homestead, Beebee-Ate rolling behind them in thoughtful silence. As they approached the Falcon, Rey spotted a lone figure, leading some sort of pack animal. It was the old woman, from yesterday.

She waved warmly, and then apparently noticed Ben. "Are you a Skywalker too? You have Shmi's look."

"On my mother's side," Ben answered, polite, but clearly a little weirded out by the question.

The woman nodded, turning back to Rey. "Your brother?"

Rey was so stunned by the error, she didn't quite know what to say, other than - "No."

The woman put her finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Your cousin?"

Rey shook her head, rising embarrassment rendering her speechless. Wouldn’t assuming Ben to be her _husband_ make more sense? And yet, the most obvious potential explanation didn’t seem to occur to the woman.

"Second cousin? Uncle?" The woman persisted. "Cousin once re-"

"We're not kriffing related!" Ben snapped. The woman scowled, and walked away.

"Ben-" Rey chided. "She didn't mean any offence."

Ben's brows furrowed. "Just kind of weird that she seemed so sure we were related."

"An honest mistake," Rey explained. "I've taken Skywalker as my surname. 

Ben stopped in his tracks, staring at her. "Why. Would you. Do that?"

Rey couldn't exactly answer. In all honesty, it was the first thing to fly into her head, yesterday. And it felt right. Or at least righter than her real surname. "I don't know."

"People will think we're cousins until the end of time! And why in the hell would you, would _anyone_ want to be a _Skywalker?!"_ he demanded. There was no real hostility in his tone, just a great deal of incredulity. "We're the most fucked up family I've ever _heard_ of _._ And besides that, I've always suspected that there was some sort of _curse.”_

"It wasn't a _curse,"_ Rey said, thinking of what Leia had told her. "Or better to say that _curse's_ name was _Palpatine."_

"And so's yours!" Ben pointed out hotly.

Rey's hands clenched into fists, including the one that was literally tied to his, jerking his arm along with her emphatic gesture. "I don't _want_ to be a Palpatine!"

"And I've sometimes wished there was breathable air in space!" Ben shot back. "What’s your point?!"

Rey glared at him, even as her insides writhed at his insinuation. Leia _had_ said she shouldn't be afraid of who she was. So had her dark shadow. She hadn't really thought about it, but declaring herself a Skywalker sort of flew in the face of the only remotely coherent theme that came out of the events of a week ago.

But it wasn't just that. It was the way Ben was talking to her. For the first time, she realized that while he had renounced the Dark Side and Kylo Ren, he was still _him._ Still happy to tactlessly tell her who she was, and what she should want in life.

Ben Solo was a good man. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that he wasn't also kind of a jerk.

 _He died for me_ , she reminded herself again. _DIED for me._

That couldn't quite keep her from pointing one thing out. "Who are _you_ to lecture _me,_ about taking a new name?!"

“And look how _that_ fucking turned out!” He then resumed ranting about the dysfunctionality of the Skywalker family, and the undesirability of the name. "... And why would you want _Luke's_ name?! He taught you next to _nothing_ ! He wasn't even _nice_ to you! If anything, it should have been -"

He stopped short, dark eyes widening. She could feel that he had realized something. Something emotionally salient. She had a feeling she knew what it was, as she'd only just realized it herself. After several seconds of bashful silence, she decided that she would have to be the one to articulate it.

"Maybe it's because I think of _you_ as a Skywalker!"

Their eyes met. There was such a softness to his expression, eyes very slightly narrowed, as with a smile, but his lips remained serious, pressed together tightly, as if he were afraid of what he might say.

"Say something," she murmured.

"I don't know - what I'm supposed to say to that."

 _You're supposed to ask me to marry you, dumbass_ , she thought inanely. 

He seemed to consider his current predicament for several seconds, before settling on a course of action. He kissed her. It wasn’t an extatic kiss, or an erotic one. It was gentle and sweet, and yet full of feeling. Her mind, already on the subject, seized on the notion that this was what a kiss at the end of a wedding should look like. Lips parted with a soft snapping sound.

And once again, they were staring at each other. He had such fine, dark eyelashes. Even as they gazed lovingly at one another, his brows suddenly furrowed. “Wait, did you say you _buried_ the sabers, earlier?”

Rey nodded. She could see Ben clenching his teeth, jaws grinding together. It took him some seconds to master himself, obviously making a concerted effort not to berate her. He blinked sardonically as he spoke. “Why?”

Rey shrugged. “I don’t know. Symbolic or something?”

Ben rolled his eyes.There was something about the gesture that seemed to mark him as his mother’s son. “Why bury them _here?_ My mother has never even seen this place, and Luke told me all about how much he hated it, and couldn't wait to leave. Not to mention, the only real parents he ever knew were brutally murdered here. It's _not_ a happy place for _either_ of them."

Rey hadn't thought about that. "Sorry."

He must have sensed her regret, and was silent for several seconds. "It's okay. You've been through a lot in the last few days, and I'm obviously the last person in the galaxy who should be telling you what healthy coping looks like."

"Hasn't stopped you before," Rey muttered, reflecting that he might have more insight into his own issues than she'd guessed.

He smirked cheekily at the comment, but didn't answer it. "Where are they buried?”

Rey swallowed, and Ben was able to read her like a holobook.

“You have no idea, do you?”

She nodded again, bracing herself for another lecture. To her surprise, he just gave her a smile. A strangely cocky smile. He reached out his free hand, eyes closed in furious concentration.

“I don’t think -”

Before she could finish her naysaying, an oblong bundle flew past her and into his hand. The sabers. Ben pulled out the heirloom weapon.

He didn’t even need to say it, his grin and slight shrug said it all. _I told you so._ There was something very provoking about that cocky smile, though she couldn’t quite say whether it provoked irritation or admiration. 

There was some fumbling then, as he figured out how to hold both weapons with one hand. Fortunately, his hand appeared to be big enough for the job. 

Ben then seemed to study has mother's saber, and then the first, clearly considering which he would use. His hand shifted against hers, fingers interlacing, eyes locked. She wouldn't have thought a _look_ could be _tender,_ but this one was. He extended Leia's saber out to Rey.

For some reason, her mind was apparently still preoccupied with the idea of marriage. Him offering her the saber made her think of holos she had seen. _This ring belonged to my mother..._

She gazed at him in touched silence for a moment, before speaking. "I have my own." She pulled out the new weapon, showing it to him. He nodded in approval. 

"I guess we'll just take mom's with us."

It could be needed later. Who knew? Maybe they would have children. There had been a time when she had been quite certain of that. She thought back to the vision that had sent her to the Supremacy. Mostly of Ben turning on Snoke, and the two of them kissing passionately in a red room. But there had been other things. Little blips. Flashes of prescience. Herself as a bride. Ben's knowing nod on Exegol. And a strange, starkly backlit image of her and Ben, hand-in-hand with a child between them. She couldn't make out much about the child's silhouette. Only that they looked to be around two years old, and had large ears.

Rey and Ben ascended the Falcon’s gangplank together.

“So, we’re headed to the Resistance, I take it?” Ben inquired. She could tell that he was hoping for a _no._

“Yes.” She paused. “You're willing to join?”

He flinched. “Rey, I don’t know… Fighting Palpatine and saving you, that’s one thing. Actually _joining_ the Resistance, that’s something else. Besides, they'll just lock me up and throw away the key card."

"Not if you declare an intent to enlist. That's an automatic full pardon. I've seen them do it, even for high ranking First Order officers."

Ben looked skeptical.

Rey sighed. Time to bring out the big guns. “What would your mother have wanted?”

He full on grimaced, as if she’d run him through all over again. Her own heart clenched in sympathetic pain, having hurt him so deeply, but even so, she could sense the rising acquiescence. At the moment, she could almost hear his thoughts. Her argument had hit home, her point beskar-clad, emotionally speaking.

“Fine,” he said grudgingly. “We head to the Resistance. But there’s something that I want to show you first.”

Rey fought back irritation at his imperious tone, regarding the ship _she_ now captained. “What?”

He grinned at her. That beautiful, charming grin. “It’s on Jakku.”

Now it was Rey’s turn to groan. “Ben, if I have to hear _one_ more thing about my past, or my family, I think I’m going to _scream.”_

“It has nothing to do with that - or rather, is only tangentially related to that.”

“What is it then?”

Ben’s grin turned into a mischievous smirk. “That’s not how surprises work.”

* * *

“We have to figure out just how this thing operates,” Rey had told him, as they headed toward Jakku. Incredibly clever as she was, she quickly determined how they could test this. 

Rey said that chronos were the best way to measure exactly how long they could safely separate. Of course, for it to be a proper experiment, a baseline had to be established, otherwise the measurements would be useless, she had reasoned aloud. She'd figured this out, having never been to school a day in her life. Kriff, how could a woman _this_ smart be interested in _him?_

This meant letting go of her hand, at least briefly. He felt the strangest sense of loss, the second their fingers lost contact. His clever Rey was dividing her time between watching the timer, and watching Ben for signs of fading.

Within a few minutes, they had learned some important lessons. It seemed that they could both sense when his life-force was beginning to fade. They had both noted that it began with an odd and intensifying pins-and-needles feeling, escalating to a terrifying numbness that immediately preceding him beginning to fade into nonexistence. But this could be instantly reversed through physical contact. Through clothing seemed to work, but Ben was privately convinced that skin-to-skin worked best, and couldn’t help letting his his mind wander to the many enjoyable ways this theory could be tested.

Hands joined again, she reset the timer. From there, all they could do was just sit around, holding hands.

At first, time was passed talking. Actually talking. Not trying to convince each other of their own rightness. Talking. Mostly about the events of the other day. Rey had been very interested to know what exactly had brought Ben back to the Light. Deeply personal, and a tiny bit crazy as it was, Ben had actually told her about the imaginary conversation with his father. Rey then told him all about her tearful retreat to Luke’s hidey-hole, and sheepishly admitted to destroying yet another one of his TIEs.

Eventually, they came to more mundane topics. Ben was not at all surprised to find that they shared a lot of tastes, particularly when it came to music and humor. They _did_ share a soul, after all. 

Hours passed, and their epic conversation came to a natural close.

“What do we talk about now?” Ben asked, genuinely interested in continuing their discussion. Kriff it was nice to have someone to talk to, who understood him. That was, someone to talk to that wasn’t an old creep pretending to be the charred skull of a dead relative.

The smile she gave him just then, shy and yet full of mischievous curiosity. “We don’t have to _talk.”_

One thing Ben was coming to realize was just how easy she was to read, now. He’d never been particularly good at picking up on her thoughts before, simply relying on visions and that old mind-probe to give insight into her mind. But now, he could pick up on her thoughts quite easily. Perhaps because he was now filled with her life-force?

He saw her intentions immediately, and scooted closer to her on the seat, reaching one arm around and pulling her close. She leaned forward, but before lips could meet, she leaned away slightly, looking quite intently into his eyes. Once again, he could feel her thoughts. _Just kiss._

Ben actually gave a sharp nod, as if he’d just been given a crucial battle order. She actually giggled slightly at the gesture. She knew that he knew. And she clearly knew that she didn’t have to tell him that she knew that he knew. This new intimacy of minds just felt _that_ natural.

This time, she waited for him to kiss her. His heart pounded in his chest as the distance closed, ten times more thrilling than flying into a dogfight, and infinitely more delicious. 

They kissed. And kissed. And then kept on kissing. Kriff, the velvety slickness of her tongue was incredible, hungry lips grasping at his. The sensation of her breath against his face was suprisingly erotic. Most of all was this odd sense of power. Not power over her. More like power over what happened to her. It had been some time since Ben had come to the conclusion that he would do anything for her. Kill for her (again). Die for her (again). Literally anything to spare her the least bit of danger or unhappiness. But now, with her in his arms like this, he felt like he actually _could_ do _anything_ . Accomplish _anything_ . Take on the whole damn galaxy, and win. _Anything._

But at the same time, there was another complimentary feeling. This overwhelming sense of safety, as if as long as he held her like this, nothing bad could ever happen.

He wasn’t sure exactly when she ended up in his lap, but certainly didn’t mind the realization. Was there an ache in his loins? Yes. Definitely. But it was surprisingly easy to ignore in favor of the blissful sensations coming from their joined mouths.

A tiny, beeping alarm went off, and Rey leaned away to check it. Kriff, they had been making out for _hours_. He could have sworn it was only a few minutes. 

In the following hours, they figured out several properties of the dependency.

It was determined that they could actually separate for brief periods, and the longer they touched, the longer they could safely separate. The ratio seemed to be something like 60 minutes of contact allowing for just under five minutes of safe non-contact. It seemed to be cumulative, too. Therefore, 120 minutes gave 10 minutes of separation, and 180 gave almost fifteen. They hadn’t yet determined the limits of this, though.

The practical implications of this situation were also just beginning to sink in. The first problem was the fact that they were both right-handed, and their hands being bound together meant that only one of them could have real use of their dominant hand at a time. This meant a lot of switching. Within hours, they determined that the red ribbon was impractical.

Needless to say, the other issue was calls of nature. Because of the ability to separate for short periods, it was possible to use the ‘fresher alone, but it still felt a little weird to ask each other for permission for it. It also seemed inevitable that at some point, they would have to inform each other what specific way in which they needed to use the restroom, as one was likely to take longer than the other. That hadn’t come up yet, but it would. How was he supposed to tell the girl of his dreams that he had to _dump his garbage?_!

It seemed almost like some weird holo-comedy, of a couple first moving in together. Except, in this case, it was a couple who had never done more than kiss, let alone share a bed.

And he supposed that was inevitable too.

* * *

“Keep your eyes closed,” he told her, leading her by the hand down the gangplank. She felt a familiar muted clang as her boots left the Falcon, and felt them dig into the familiar sand of Jakku. She was already tolerably sure where she was.

Ben continued to lead her by their joined hands, and then stopped, his free hand resting lightly on her shoulder. “Okay, you can look.”

It was her old AT-AT alright, but only in the overall arrangement of the place. Everything had been scrubbed, and painted in warm, tasteful colors. Throw rugs covered the steel floor. Her stove had been replaced by a decorative fire pit. Colorful, stained-glass lamps hung from the ceiling. She particularly liked how her marks on the wall had been incorporated into an intricate, abstract pattern, like some fancy work of art.

She glanced over at her old bed, curious if it was now big enough for two. Interestingly, it wasn’t. Elegant, and dressed in rich velvets, strewn with silk pillows, but still clearly meant for one. That was both disappointing and rather endearing. “Very pretty.”

There was something slightly suppressed about his smile, as if he were a bad comedian waiting to deliver a punchline.

“What?”

He still just stood there, grinning expectantly. After a few seconds, his eyes flicked toward the door. Rey made her way across the room and outside. What she saw literally took her breath away.

She was stepping out into a lush, green, well-trimmed field. A few meters away was a flower bed, surrounding a small pond, complete with artificial waterfall. The whole clearing was surrounded by rolling green foothills. And there were trees. Actual trees. Small ones by the standards of most planets, but they _were_ trees. Some even had fruit. She turned around to face Ben again, and saw that the AT-AT itself was partially obscured by moss and vines, with flowers growing out of various crevices. 

She turned in a slow circle, taking everything in, and then knelt down, running her fingers through the grass. So soft. Her imagination blazed up with the mental image of her and Ben, lying entwined on the silky lawn, nude bodies lit softly by the light of the moons. Perhaps that could actually happen? She could suggest they stay and watch the sunset...

“What planet is this?” She asked, thinking that he must have had it all painstakingly moved.

“I told you, it’s Jakku. I had the area ecoformed,” his eyes met hers, “for you.” Ben led her up a nearby hill, almost at a run, like an excited child. It was the same hill on which she had first met Beebee-Ate. He gestured expansively toward the horizon. Sure enough, she could see sand dunes off in the distance. Ben bent over, picking up a small pebble and throwing it up at the sky. The air seemed to shimmer as it bounced off of what must have been some sort of sheild. “It covers a kilometer radius, just finished a few weeks ago. It’s self-sustaining too.”

“I can only imagine how many starving people could have been fed on the money that you must have spent on this,” Rey couldn’t help pointing out.

“Better to ask _how many bombs_ could have been built with that money. First Order money.” He paused, launching back into his excited rant, as if bragging about the specs of a souped up new speeder. “The dome keeps the weather consistent, and droids come out at night to tend the plants. All solar powered. We could come back in fifty years and it will still look like this. The sheild is refractive, so it can’t really be seen from the outside, and without the codes, no one can get in or out.”

Rey’s heart sank. “Out?”

Ben froze, like a child caught stealing.

“Out?” Rey repeated, eyes narrowing. “This wasn’t meant to be a present or an apology. This was _supposed_ to be my _prison_.”

His eyes dropped down to her feet for a moment, but then his expression turned defiant. “Palpatine would have never found you here. It would have kept you safe!” he exclaimed self-righteously. 

“Whether I liked it or not,” Rey spat back, pulling her hand from his. 

“Rey -” He had that pleading look. The one from the throne room. 

She sighed deeply. True, he was no longer Kylo Ren, but he was still the man who _used to be_ Kylo Ren. _He died for me,_ she reminded herself. _He died for me._ That thought seemed to excuse quite a bit, but she had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last time she’d have to say those words to herself.

_He died for me he died for me he died for me._

"Oh take my damn hand," she sighed.

She at least decided against watching the sunset and then jumping his bones right here in the prison he had been so proud of creating for her. That could be his punishment.

* * *

Every minute that brought them closer to bed time, seemed to make Ben’s heart beat faster. It would be together. It had to be. There was literally no way he could survive a whole night without her touch. But what would end up happening in that shared bed?

And then finally, she said those most exciting of words.

“I guess we’ll be sleeping together, then.” Her face flushed. “I mean, we’ll be sharing a bed.” That wasn’t any less suggestive, and she clearly knew it. “I mean -”

“I get your general idea,” he said, chuckling.

She began to make her way toward the captain’s cabin - the only berth big enough for two. Ben knew he should be doing or saying something terribly romantic. Something that would make her practically swoon into his arms, excepit this time, without the unconsciousness and kidnapping.

He should be doing something, but what? He had no idea. It had been over a decade since he’d even been _near_ a girl. Such things were not encouraged at Luke’s Temple, and Snoke’s monitoring of his thoughts and actions, plus a constant sense of self-hatred wasn’t exactly conducive to sexual pursuits. In all of his years, Ben only had one experience, and all that distant bout of dispassionate curiosity had served to teach him was just how little he knew about such things.

What was he supposed to do?

Something. He was supposed to say something. Every bone in his body said so. One bone in particular. 

But the second he stepped foot into that room, with all of it’s melancholy nostalgia, all serious though of sex practically vanished. 

This was his parent’s room. The parents whose love for their son had led them to death. The parents he had killed.

He remembered the room well. He used to insist on crawling into his parent’s bed, when he was little. It made him less afraid of the nightmares. _It’s okay, Hotshot,_ his father would say. _It was just a dream, and dreams can’t hurt you._ How wrong he was.

“Turn around, please,” Rey requested. Ben obeyed, keeping his eyes fixed on his parents bed. He recalled an evening years ago, the first time Ben had been invited to knock a few back with his father and Uncle Lando. His father had let slip that Ben was literally a _souvenir_ of a particular hyperspace run he and mom had taken, while still newlyweds. Ben recalled wishing he could unhear that, and that desire was even stronger now. On top of all the romance-killing guilt, his first night shared with the woman of his dreams, would be in the bed that Ben had all but certainly been conceived in. Or it could have been somewhere else on the Falcon. Eeewwee. Dear Force, why did his father have to have such a loose tongue?

“Alright,” Rey announced. Ben turned, and found her wearing a knee-length oversized tunic. Kriff she looked amazing in everything. She crawled onto the bed.

Acting practically on autopilot, Ben lifted off his shirt. The look on Rey’s face was unbelievably gratifying. That look alone made him completely certain that every rep he’d ever done in the gym was entirely worth it.

He supposed he’d be sleeping in his trousers. They both shifted, until covered by the blanket up to their armpits. Rey produced the red sash that they’d abandoned earlier in the day. She didn’t need to say anything; it was a good idea. That way, there’d be no risk of one of them rolling over too far, and him dying.

Rey turned over, onto her side, her fingers interlacing with his. Kriff she was damn near beautiful enough to make him forget all that shit about the parents he'd killed, fucking right here. She leaned forward, placing a light but lingering kiss on his lips. Lingering so long that he couldn’t help thinking that she was expecting something from him.

“This was my parent’s bed,” he said sadly. Their eyes met, and he hoped she could see his thoughts, the way she often could. That she could see that there was nothing, NOTHING in the worlds he wanted more than to make, sweet, passionate, and soul-burstingly poignant love to her… So long as it was literally _anywhere_ but _here._

* * *

“Fuck up, it did. Yes,” Yoda repeated, with a hoarse, throaty chuckle.

“The Will of the Force _can’t -”_ Obi-Wan protested.

“Agree with you, I would have, at one time,” Yoda interjected. “But clearly, wrong I would have been.” He gave another throaty chuckle. “Besides, one with the Cosmic Force, we _are,_ so who better to say when wrong, something is?”

“How is this _wrong?_ The Skywalkers have been a force for chaos and mayhem -” Obi-Wan paused, glancing at Anakin. “No offense.”

“None taken. We are kind of a mess,” Anakin replied indifferently.

Obi-Wan continued. “And now the Skywalker’s are finally gone, and the war is won. What more is needed?”

“A little damn happiness, that’s what!” Anakin interjected, roused to vehemence. “Those kids are crazy about each other. You know what would be kind of novel and interesting and yet nice _symmetrical, rhyming_ close to all the chaos I caused with my dysfunctional attachments? Two people actually having a _happy_ family together!”

* * *

The sash worked like a charm. Rey and Ben discovered that a whole night of physical contact provided plenty of _charge_ for them to bathe and dress separately. In all honesty, Ben found that a little disappointing. He’d woken up well before 0600, his with his dick as straight and hot as a lightsaber, and thinking of how this bed may have felt like a boner-wilting taboo, but bathing naked together in the ‘fresher… But sadly, it wasn’t to be.

By the time Rey had emerged from her turn in the ‘fresher, he could tell that he needed some _charge_ . The second he took her hand, she announced that she needed to get something from her bunk. Ben followed her, and watched as she reached under it, and pulled a small object out, quickly hiding it in her palm. White, and cylindrical. Obviously a comlink. What did she need a comlink for? The agenda for the morning was for them to discuss some sort of _plan_ for their arrival at the Resistance base. 

“What’s in your hand?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, sounding both evasive and distinctly disappointed. She then declared that she needed to use the ‘fresher again, for a moment.

Why again, when she’d just been in there? What was she planning to do with a secret comlink? What did she need to say, that she couldn’t say in front of him? Surely, she was contacting the Resistance, but why secretly?

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” she spat, more defensively. She was hiding something. He could sense it in her vibes. There was something that she _really_ didn’t want him to know. Could she be planning on betraying him? She hadn't shown any sign of it, but the assumption of eminent treachery came easily to someone who had experienced so much of it.

He knew he needed to persuade her to hold off. To talk to her. He _knew_ that's what he should do. But that wasn't what he did.

He grabbed for the comlink. 

"BEN!" she shouted, fighting him for it. But he was stronger, and managed to gently but forcefully pry the device from her hand.

Strangely, it appeared to be a small, plasti-wrapped item. He couldn't tell what was inside, but it was obviously not electronic in nature.

"It's mestru-plug, you jerk!"

Ben felt every drop of blood in his body rush into his face. "I -"

Even through his own mortification, he could sense her embarrassment as well. 

The next two hours were spent in near complete silence, which was particularly awkward while still holding hands. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Perry Downing for the plug, editing and encouragement!
> 
> Next time:  
> Hello. Ben Solo Here.... Anyway I'm Good Now.


	3. Hello. Ben Solo here.... Anyway, I'm Good Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl's gotta stand up for her man, even if he is a hot mess.

The Falcon came to a delicate landing at the Resistance Base. Ben and Rey, still locked in awkward silence from the menstru-plug incident, glanced at each other. It was only then that Ben recalled that they were supposed to talk over exactly how to manage his arrival at the base, and were rapidly running out of time.

Rey seemed to realize it too, and turned to Ben with widened eyes. She stood, peered down from the cockpit, and flinched. Clearly there was a welcoming party, already standing outside.

“Ben,” she said, pressing his hand between hers. “You HAVE to tell them you want to enlist, first thing.”

Ben grunted in acknowledgement, as they walked hand-in-hand toward the loading ramp. Rey stopped short and turned to him, looking almost pleadingly into his eyes. “It would mean a _lot_ to me if you got along with my friends.”

Her friends. The Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron, and FN-2187, who was apparently now to be called Finn. How was he supposed to….

She seemed to pick up on his thoughts. “Just - if you have nothing nice to say, keep your mouth shut, alright?”

Ben grunted in acknowledgement again. This time, Rey didn’t seem satisfied by his response. 

“Alright?” she demanded.

“I'll try,” he grumbled.

Rey's eyes narrowed. "You know, one of the few things Luke actually taught me was this phrase. _Do or do not -"_

" _There is no try,"_ Ben finished in a groan. He'd always hated that little bit of Jedi rhetoric. Luke seemed to think it was some panacea for any form of fear or doubt, so Ben heard it a lot. It wasn't encouraging. It was just incredibly invalidating. There _was_ such a thing as _try._ There was. And it _did_ matter, even if failure was the result. Ben had spent most of his life _trying_ and failing. _Trying_ not to listen to the voices. _Trying_ to be the son his parents actually wanted. _Trying_ to be Luke’s perfect Jedi. _Trying_ to shun the Light. 

"Promise?" Rey prompted.

"Promise," he said grudgingly.

His cooperation was rewarded with a bright smile, and suddenly, Ben felt like he might actually be able to be civil to these people. It would make Rey happy, so….

A distressing thought occurred to Ben. “Will Chewie be there?”

“Probably not,” Rey told him. “Chewie’s off with Lando, helping round up as many politicians as they can, to help plan the new government.”

“Lando?” 

Rey nodded.

Ben wasn’t that surprised. Lando. His favorite uncle. That was, the uncle that _didn’t_ steal him from his parents and then try to kill him in his sleep, or witness and then shoot him for the greatest mistake of his life.

Ben already knew what Chewie’s reaction was likely to be, having tasted it several days ago. But Lando. What would he say? Ben honestly had no idea.

Hand-in-hand, Ben and Rey stepped down the gang plank. Predictably, Dameron and the ex-trooper were waiting at the bottom, staring up with their stupid, handsome faces. The one now called Finn looked up at them with not-even-veiled hostility, glaring at Ben, and then pointedly at their joined hands. Finn didn’t even seem that surprised, though thoroughly horrified, as if he’d seen all of this before in his worst nightmare.

Dameron on the other hand, looked - amused?

“This is Ben Solo,” Rey announced. After a few seconds of silence, she elbowed Ben, hard. 

Even so, it took him a moment to find the words. When he spoke, it came out as a sullen mutter, like a child forced into an insincere apology. “I’ve defected. I want to join the Resistance.” 

Dameron burst out laughing. Actually laughing, and clapping his hands. “Ha! That’s _great!_ ” Dameron declared, walking right up to Ben, and inspecting his face. “Kriff, it looks _just_ like him! Rey, where’d you find this guy? That’s _hilarious!”_

Clearly, he seemed to think that Ben was some imposter, hired as a prank. Could they possibly run with that? Pretend that he wasn’t the _real_ Kylo Ren. It might circumvent some problems… But judging by the look on Finn’s face, Dameron might be the only one stupid enough to believe it.

Rey didn’t seem to know what to say, so Ben answered. “I _am_ him.”

Dameron let out a loud guffaw. “Kriff, it even _sounds_ like him, too!” Dameron then looked to his companion, no doubt to communicate his amusement, but the sullen glare on Finn’s face seemed to finally clue him in. Dameron squinted at Ben, and laughed yet again, though this time, the chuckle was decidedly uncomfortable. “Nah, that's impossible.”

Rey finally found her voice. “I think we need to go somewhere and talk.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Finn growled, eyes still fixed on their joined hands.

Rey led the three men into the base, to what seemed to be some sort of tactical office. 

“Wait here,” Rey ordered. “ _Trust me.”_

Ben wanted to protest. The words were on the tip of his tongue. And then he realized that going with her would likely mean having to make nice with Finn and Dameron. 

She disappeared around the corner with her two friends. There was no actual door, so Ben heard every single word of the conversation.

He heard a light slapping sound, clearly a hand on a forehead, and it was followed by the rustling of hair.

“I don’t know -” Dameron began. He’d clearly reached a more appropriate, bewildered state. “I don’t know where to start. This is - this is - like two different kinds of impossible.”

A long silence, during which Dameron seemed to progress from bewildered to angry. “First of all, the Rey _I_ know wouldn’t just bring an enemy leader to a still semi-secret base, without a word of warning or permission! And second of all, HE’S DEAD! Everyone thinks he’s dead. You _told_ us that he was dead! Was that a lie?! Why would you -

Rey cut him off. “Would you like me to actually answer any of those questions, or would you just prefer to keep yelling at me?”

Ben felt his hackles raise, at that. It took a good deal of self control not to march in there and seize Dameron by the throat.

But Dameron seemed to silently concede her point.

“I didn’t tell you _everything_ that happened on Exegol. I was going to. But I just wasn’t ready to talk about it…”

And so Rey explained. She told them almost everything that happened, including her being descended from Palpatine himself. There was a bit of a sidetrack there, with questions about how that was even possible. Wouldn’t Palpatine have been well into his seventies when her father was born? And who in the hell did Palpatine get to….

Rey steered the conversation back on track. She continued on with the story, with particular and repetitive emphasis on how the day, and indeed the galaxy would have been lost if Ben hadn’t shown up when he did. Kriff, the way she described it, it made Ben think of old period holos, where the hero swings in on a chandelier. She went on, through Palpatine’s soul-sucking attack, and on to Rey’s final stand against him. Ben found that rather interesting, though in all honesty, quite implausible. Two lightsabers and some ghostly encouragement? That was _it?_ That was all it took to destroy _all_ the Sith? Ben resolved to ask her more about it later.

She then came to the part where she had died. A lump formed in Ben’s throat at the mere mention of her death. Dameron balked at the idea that she’d died, but Finn had corroborated it. He’d felt it apparently. Ben felt a cold and exceptionally jealous fist clench around his guts. Of course he’d suspected that the traitor was Force sensitive, but the idea that the traitor and Rey had _any_ degree of Force bond, however weak in comparison….

Rey went on to recount how Ben had given his own life to save her. She left out the kiss. Ben didn’t mind that. That moment was sacred. Something that belonged only to them. 

It was around then that Ben noticed that odd pins-and-needles feeling. He was starting to run out of life force. But he wasn’t going to go in there, to Rey. There was no way he was going to allow those assholes to see him look weak.

“Okay, I’m with you so far,” Dameron said. “But that doesn’t explain why he’s alive, and more importantly, why he’s _here_!”

Rey then gave a deceitfully unsexy account of Ben’s appearance on Tatooine, and Luke’s explanation.

“ _That’s_ why you were holding hands!” Finn declared in obvious relief. He was in love with Rey, Ben decided instantly. Another thing he'd suspected since Starkiller. Dameron probably was too, now that he thought about it. What man could possibly know Rey and not _want_ her?

“Yes. And that’s why he’s here. He will literally die if he’s not with me.”

“And that’s a _bad_ thing?!” Dameron asked incredulously.

“Yes!” Rey shouted. Actually shouted. That made Ben grin to himself.

“Well, he can’t stay here,” Finn stated.

“Then you guys are going to have to find yourself another Jedi. Good luck with that.”

There was a long pause, during which Ben imagined Rey’s beautiful, defiant stare. 

“Who knows that Ben Solo became Kylo Ren?” Rey resumed, changing tac.

“Pretty much just us,” Dameron said. “Most of them died on the Radiss.”

“Right,” Rey said, all persuasive confidence, “Leia once told me that there wasn’t a military in the galaxy that would trust a woman to fight against her own son...”

Ben had never really thought about that. Fighting against his army, all the while holding on to hope. Mom was always so good at that. Hope. Hope that Ben was just going through a phase. Hope that the therapists would fix him. Hope that Luke would fix him. And finally, at long last, actually trusting him to fix himself.

Rey was still talking. “... Then what’s the problem? Most people around here were told that her son went into hiding after the family history became public. So now he’s back! The prodigal knight returned to pay his respect to his mother and finally join her cause. Which isn’t really a lie anyway!”

Silence. Ben could sense a shift in the room. Something that wasn’t _okay fine_ , but also wasn’t quite the _fuck no_ of five minutes ago.

Just then, Ben was approached by a short, orange alien woman. She looked vaguely familiar. 

She stood at his feet, looking up at him as if he were a cliff she had to scale. “Last time I saw you, you were shorter than me,” she commented casually, smacking him on the hip, and walking on by, into the room where Rey and the jerks were meeting.

“Damn it Maz!” Dameron groaned, “Can’t you see we're a bit busy in here!”

“I know,” she replied cooly. “Talking about that boy’s fate. Well, there’s something you need to hear. Something you need to understand about _good_ and _evil.”_

“Yeah, yeah,” Dameron grumbled dismissively, “Evil people think they’re doing the right thing, yada yada yada.”

“Also often true, but not the point I was getting at. It’s time you had the most terrifying lesson you will ever learn,” the alien said darkly. “There is no such thing as an _evil person_. There are only _evil circumstances_ , and more rarely, _evil intentions_. When us so called _good_ _people_ see someone do something terrible, we tell ourselves _in their situation, I would never do that, because I am good, and they are bad_. But that is just a bedtime story we tell ourselves so we can sleep at night. We say _I am good and they are bad. Therefore there is no reason for me to examine the darkness in my own soul._ And so we go on our happy way, believing ourselves incapable of evil.

"The truth is, in that _bad_ person’s circumstances, you can _never_ know for sure that you wouldn’t have acted the same way. And when I say _circumstances,_ I mean _all_ their circumstances. Their upbringing. Their history. Their support system. Their brain chemistry. Morality is a choice we make or don’t make, minute by minute -"

“You want to talk _choices?”_ the traitor interrupted her. “Take a look at the choices _he_ made! The people he killed -”

“Have _you_ ever killed someone?” Maz inquired calmly. She didn't wait for an answer. "What a stupid question, of course you have. Quite a few, I'm sure. And tell me this - when your blaster shot finds its mark on a sentient being, do you weep for their death, or do you let out a cheer of triumph?"

“Enemy comba-”

“People,” Maz now interrupted him. “Stormtroopers who had no more choice than you did, and may have been every bit as conflicted as you!”

There was a long, long silence then. Ben heard a chair screech; someone was threatening to leave the table. But Maz continued on. "War makes monsters of us all, and when the war blazes across the stars, it makes a whole lot of monsters." She paused. "But I was talking about _circumstances,_ and it’s time you knew what circumstances that poor boy has lived with, his whole life up until yesterday…”

And she told them. Ben didn’t even really perceive the words over his own whirling thoughts, but it involved Palpatine being in Ben’s head from the beginning. That was something that Ben himself had only half-processed. That the evil in his soul was actually an external force, literally seeking to destroy his life. For the first time, he actually allowed himself to wonder if maybe - just maybe - it wasn’t all _completely_ his fault. Mostly, yes. He didn’t doubt that. But maybe not _completely._

The idea that some shred of the blame might lay somewhere else was unspeakably poignant. But he wouldn’t cry. No. No crying. Nonono crying. Not with those assholes only a few meters away. Ben closed his eyes, and thought of Rey. Thought of her smiling at him, on Exegol. That steadied him. 

Maz was still talking. “...when you combine psychic child abuse, several tragic misunderstandings, a genetic predisposition toward being a hot mess, _and_ a war, you get one hell of a _monster_. But a monster is a living being. And by definition, living beings grow and change." She paused again. "And you don’t know what Leia did, at the end do you?” 

And so, Maz told them that too. 

Unfortunately, dear reader, the explanation of what exactly Leia died for cannot be relayed to you at this time, as it continues to baffle me. Died to save her son? Died to kill him? Both? Who knows. Suffice to say that Maz seemed to know was going on, and she relayed it to our core quartet. You, my dear reader, must imagine that everyone was suitably moved by her sacrifice. 

“... Your general died to bring us to this point,” Maz continued. “Your commanding officer believed in that boy. Believed in him so much that she died to _reach_ him.”

There was a long silence before Dameron spoke. “We can’t just _let him in.”_

“Why not?!” Rey demanded. “You did with the one Vy brought in!”

“And we sent him to a deprogramming retreat on Cerea for several standard months before letting him do anything.”

“Good!” Rey exclaimed. “Great! Wonderful! Cerea it is, then! Of course, you realize that I’ll be going too, but that’s no problem. I could use a damn vacation!”

“Rey, you know we can’t spare you right now. Not while half the First Order is still out there, and everything is so uncertain.”

Once again, Ben imagined Rey’s beautiful defiant stare. “Alright then, no Cerea. If you need _me_ here then he’s staying too.”

“Damn it!” Dameron bellowed. “What the hell am I supposed to do, then!?”

“That seems rather obvious, to me,” Maz said placidly. “You want the Jedi, you get the Sith - or Dark Jedi or whatever - too. Such is the nature of the galaxy.”

Once again, Ben could feel the vibe in the room shifting. He could also feel those pins and needles intensifying. He needed this conversation to end.

“We can’t just let him run around. We can put him in a cell or something,” the traitor suggested.

Rey groaned. “Fine, then I’ll be in that cell too. Useless to you, and you’ll have to explain why your only Jedi, practically your damn mascot, is in jail.”

“So wait,” the traitor said, sounding confused. “I still don’t get it. He dies if he’s not with you. That makes no sense.”

“Ben?” Rey called out. Ben didn’t even think about it. No thought of appearing weak. Rey called for him, and he obeyed, taking a seat beside her. She leaned over and whispered to him. “I promise I won’t let it go too far, but I need them to _understand_.”

So Ben just stood there, with two men who obviously despised him, staring at him. He hated this, having Dameron and the traitor, still so near enemies, seeing him this vulnerable. It took every last speck of self control not to grab Rey by the arm and storm out of the room.

The numbness was starting to set in. He looked down at his own hands, just barely starting to go transparent.

“W-what the hell…” Finn stammered. 

Just as Ben was starting to feel lightheaded, Rey seized his arm. Ben gasped in relief.

“That… is the freakiest thing... I have ever seen,” Dameron declared.

“You see?” Rey said, in obvious vindication. Another long silence, and Rey let out something between a groan and a sigh. “He’s no threat to you, like this.”

Ben’s teeth ground together, and he was a split second away from bellowing that he _was_ still a threat. That he could kill Finn and Dameron right now, well before he faded into nonexistence. Apparently sensing his intention, Rey stomped on his foot. His still bare foot. His teeth clenched in pain, conveniently holding his tongue in check.

“Fine,” Dameron said grudgingly. “But we can’t tell anyone who he is. And I want Kolonia to look at the two of you. Maybe there’s some way to fix whatever the hell is going on.”

Ben sincerely doubted that medical science had solutions to offer.

“And -!” Finn cut in emphatically. “You have to tell us _one_ thing, Rey,” he demanded. The traitor was staring at Rey intensely, as if he thought he could read her mind. It made Ben want to punch him in the face. Again. Perhaps harder than last time. “Are you _with_ him?”

“What do you mean?” Rey replied nervously, her confusion obviously affected.

“Oh for kriff sake!” Dameron interjected. “You know damn well what he means!”

Ben listened for Rey’s answer every bit as intently as the other two. Probably more. _Were_ they together? They _were_ literal soulmates. And they _had_ spent most of yesterday afternoon making out. And she had wept with joy at his resurrection. Surely they must be a couple. But Rey had never actually said that, and with all of his lingering self-hatred, Ben couldn’t quite bring himself to make such a presumption, without verbal confirmation from her.

Rey’s hand crept down from his arm to rest against his palm, fingers grasping at his with such heartening affection, her vibes glowing with something that _had_ to be love. For one beautiful, wonderful, perfect moment, Ben was sure he knew what her answer had to be.

“I am not.” Her face was blank, but her tone was serious, and still a little defiant. Rey's hand squeezed his tightly.

Ben was staring at her, making a very, _very_ concerted effort not to let the heartbreak show on his face, and no doubt not entirely succeeding. Being run through was nothing compared to _this._

Rey’s two so-called friends were staring at her too, Finn in obvious relief, and Poe in obvious skepticism. 

“Now- ” Rey resumed starkly. “On an unrelated note, I’ll be needing a bed big enough for two in my quarters."

* * *

“A good point, that is,” Yoda agreed. “Not just _victorious_ is the ending of a hero’s path. Happy it should be.”

"Who ever said _life_ should be _happy_?" Obi-Wan grumbled cynically.

"Not of life, was I speaking. The path of a hero. Certain steps there must be.”

“I beg your pardon,” Mace Windu said, joining the debate, “But how exactly is Kylo Ren a _hero?”_

Yoda made one of his throaty chuckles. “Around him, most significant current events have all revolved. And connected, by affection or enmity to other key players, he is. A central role in the cosmic drama that is this galaxy, he has.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a hero, to me,” Windu said skeptically.

“A thousand faces, the hero has. Called to adventure Ben Solo was, by his uncle. Refused that call he later did, when he abandoned the Jedi’s life. A dark mentor he found in Snoke, and crossed the threshold into mystical darkness, he did. Trials he faced, and in the belly of a beast, he struggled, until meet with a goddess Ben did, and tempted by her, he was. Then approached an actual cave, he did-” 

“What cave?” Anakin inquired curiously.

“On Crait, this cave was.” Yoda then gave a particularly long, eccentric chuckle. “Or between the legs of young Rey, one could also say.”

“Master Yoda, no need to be crude,” Ahsoka Tano groaned, joining the fray.

Yoda was unphased. “Then made literal atonement with his father, Ben did. A final ordeal Ben then faced, seized the great sword he did, and claimed the boon of love. But there his path stopped short.”

Luke was rather intrigued by this concept. Much of it sounded like his own life. “What is supposed to come after that?”

“Resurrection of course,” Yoda explained. “Which your intervention helped him to achieve. A magic escape, he then had, aided by you, and young Rey. Now return home, he can.”

Luke nodded. “And then what?”

"The master of life and death, he must now become, and then bestow boons upon the galaxy.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a literary or mythology scholar, but.... Yeah.
> 
> Thanks again to Perry Downing, for all of the encouragement!
> 
> Next time: A Well-Deserved Tongue Lashing


	4. A Well-Deserved Tongue Lashing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finally calls Ben out for being such an asshole to her in the past.

Even with his throat tight with soul-crushing disappointment, Ben couldn’t help admiring Rey's audacity, asking for a bed for them to share, immediately after declaring that they weren’t a couple. He began to think about the situation more logically. Examining her vibes. Noticing the reassuring tightness of her grasp on his hand. As they walked out of the room, hand-in-hand, he dared to hope that she might be lying.

This only heightened his confusion. Ben hated being confused. It was too reminiscent of his darkest moments. 

“What am I, to you?” he demanded, as soon as they were out of anyone else’s earshot.

She turned to him, revealing eyes glossy with repressed tears. “You’re someone who shouldn’t rush me!” she hissed.

Ben blinked, not sure what to say.

Her hand squeezed his, hard, and not in the reassuring way it had before. More like she would have made a tight fist if his hand hadn’t been in the way. She looked like she wanted to pace maniacally, but that didn’t really work with their hands joined. Instead, she shook her head. “I didn’t realize it until I was already sitting with them. I didn’t even  _ think _ of it until then.” Her eyes met Ben’s. “I  _ can’t  _ tell them that we’re together. Doing that could ruin  _ everything.” _

“Why?” he asked harshly.

Rey glared off into the distance, still shaking her head. “You don’t understand, do you? I guess you wouldn’t, growing up with a mother who was one of the most powerful women in the galaxy.” She raised her eyes back to his, and drew in a deep breath. “People in general, and men in particular, have a tendency to think that a young woman is incapable of knowing her own mind. Anything she says that’s out-of-the-ordinary is automatically doubted. People just instantly assume that any decision we make is made for the stupidest or shallowest possible reason, as if we’re incapable of thinking things through or understanding our own desires.”

Ben’s teeth ground together. He thought he knew what she was getting at. He was a half second away from stomping back into that meeting room, and punching Dameron and the traitor in turn until they promised to respect Rey’s opinion. “Those guys are assholes,” Ben muttered, thinking it was what Rey wanted to hear.

To his dismay, Rey practically rounded on him, glaring fiercely up at him. “I hate to break it to you Ben, but  _ you’re _ no different!”

Ben touched his own chest in bewilderment, as if she might be talking to some other Ben. “Me?”

“You!”

He was beyond shocked by her accusation. “I’ve ALWAYS respected you!” he protested. 

“Well, you’ve had a damn funny way of showing it!” she countered. “How many times have you disregarded my desires and my beliefs? How many times did I tell you that I didn’t want to  _ know _ or that I didn’t want to  _ turn, _ and you just kept at it, as if you  _ knew _ better?! As if I was too stupid to understand what I wanted or what was good for me!” She paused, panting briefly. “Granted, on a few occasions, you  _ were _ right. I needed to know the truth about my family. But that doesn’t change the fact that you have a tendency to disregard or contradict any assertion I made!”

Ben instantly felt like his lungs had plummeted toward his bowels, and he blinked away the beginning of tears, he was so ashamed. So ashamed. She was right, and he knew it.

It had been a while since he had decided that Rey was the most incredible creature in the galaxy, and he felt his actions reflected that, but his words… Not so much. Self-hatred and lack of any recent experience interacting with anyone that he didn’t hate, had sabotaged practically every conversation.

He swallowed his tears, nodding slightly, and unable to meet her eyes. “I understand,” he said in a pitiful whisper, hoping that would keep his voice from cracking. His dearest dreams were dying before his eyes, and because of his own idiocy,  _ as always _ . He was about ready to fly into the Maw and die. But so powerful was his shame, and so powerful was his love, that he couldn’t bring himself to do anything but agree with her. “One word from you, and I’ll never -”

Rey cut him off. “No, no,  _ no _ !” she actually shouted at him, obviously frustrated. “That wasn’t what I meant at all! Not the reason I can’t - you got me sidetracked!” She paused, gathering her bearings. “What I was  _ trying  _ to say, was that men think that young women are incapable of knowing what they’re doing. And if I tell Finn and Poe that we’re  _ together _ , that will call everything else I say into question, including your redemption! They’ll automatically assume that I’m just blinded by infatuation or -”

“Or what?” Ben asked eagerly, cautiously optimistic that she didn’t actually hate him after all.

Rey flushed. 

“Or what?” he persisted.

“Or some sort of,” she paused, her lip awkwardly between her teeth. “Weird bad-boy fetish!” Rey finally burst out.

Ben’s brows shot up. That bantha had been in the room since the first time he’d sensed her possible attraction to him, and it had finally been articulated. Was that the basis of her interest in him? Just some purely physical… but no. She’d just been saying how he shouldn’t assume that everything she did was for shallow reasons. Ben’s mind refocused on what she’d said earlier, about how he’d always spoken to her so nastily. Ben practically jumped forward, seizing her other hand, and looking deeply into her eyes. “Tell me what to do,” he begged her earnestly. “Tell me how to  _ be _ when I'm with you.”

Rey shook her head. “Ben…”

“Please,” he said, grimacing in desperation, and half a second from dropping to his knees. “I don’t  _ want _ to be an asshole to you. Tell me what to change, and I’ll change it! You  _ know _ I will!”

“Ben,” she sighed, “If you can’t figure that out yourself...” Rey trailed off.

He nodded swiftly. Okay. He had to figure this out, right here and now. How to be the man Rey wanted. He thought back to all of their conversations, flinching at each recollection of what he’d said to her. How he’d always been telling her what to want, and what to believe, changing the subject whenever he pleased, belittling her beliefs, and contradicting her at every opportunity. All of their conversations had been like that, back then. All… except one. The night they touched hands. Yes. She’d returned from that cave, and he’d listened quietly to everything she said, and told her that she wasn’t alone. And she had touched his hand. Yes, she’d initiated that. And it must have been immediately after that, she’d set out for the Supremacy. Trusted him, and wanted to be where he was. What was different about that conversation? He had to figure that out.  _ That  _ was what she meant about wanting to take  _ Ben’s _ hand. What did he do  _ right?! _

“Listen!” The revelation burst out of his mouth. She wanted him to  _ listen _ . Was that it? Did women like men who  _ listen? _ Had he solved the puzzle that had baffled men for countless generations? The answer to the riddle of female desire was -  _ listening _ !

Rey gave a slight smile, confirming that he was onto something. “That would be an excellent start,” Rey told him. “And - maybe  _ think _ before you speak.” Ben almost protested, that of course he  _ thought  _ before speaking, but Rey elaborated first. “I mean, consider how your words are likely to make me feel.”

Ben inanely glanced around, as if looking for a writing implement to jot this down. He repeated the words in his head, hoping they would be forever emblazoned on the inside of his thick, stupid skull. “Think about words and your feelings,” he muttered to himself.

Rey was actually chuckling quietly to herself. “You know, all this time, I’d wondered if you’d meant to offend me, or if you were just - “

“An idiot?” Ben finished for her. Her smile widened, and he could feel the affection radiating from her very soul. She briefly bobbed forward, like she wanted to kiss him, but apparently thought better of it.

“So,” Ben began again, changing tac, “What you were saying before, is that you won’t say that we’re together until I’ve proven myself to the Resistance?”

Rey nodded. 

“And are you also saying that  _ when _ I prove myself to the Resistance, I can -” There were a thousand things that he wanted to say just then. _ Hold you naked in my arms all night? Never be apart from you for the rest of my days? Put a beautiful ring on your beautiful finger? Memorize every centimeter of your body, inside and out?  _ Instead, he chose to use the wording that she had used earlier. “ _ Be with you… _ openly?"

She smiled up at him enchantingly. “Perhaps.”

Ben gave a decisive nod. “Right!” And with that he started literally marching back toward the meeting room, his strides so huge that Rey stumbled into a jog to keep from being outright dragged.

Ben burst back into the meeting room. If there was a door, it would have slammed against the wall, so dramatic was his entrance.

“What do  _ you _ want? We already said you could -”

“DO YOU WANT THE CODES?!” Ben shouted.

Dameron blinked. “What codes?”

“The First Order’s codes! The keycode to their data system!”

“What would we need with the First Order’s codes  _ now _ ?” the traitor asked, with a glare.

“No wait,” Dameron said, frowning, “You can get us into their data system?”

Ben nodded, leaping forward toward a nearby computer console. “I assume your slicers have gotten as far as the code entry screen?”

The next few minutes were spent with Dameron comming some woman, who entered shortly after. Ben was practically hopping up and down with impatience as the woman worked at the console. After a few minutes, there it was. The access point.

“Move,” Ben commanded rudely, and began entering the long series of codes. He had them memorized. That was something that his mother had taught him. No safer place for a piece of information than in your own memory. With a slight flourish, he tapped in a few commands, and transferred the image to the holoprojector. 

The room filled with a three dimensional glittering greenish web of orbs and symbols. “There,” he declared. “That’s everything. Location of every ship, every squad, every base,” He zoomed in on one of the capital ships, and some words and numbers appeared. “And here’s the data for everything. Troops. Munitions. Causalities. Officers. Morale metrics.”

“It’s still updating,” Dameron announced, voice full of wonder, as if he was peering into some magical treasure trove. It seemed to take him some seconds to master himself, and remember who he was talking to. "How do we know this is genuine? If you'd really defected, they'd deactivate your code."

"Why would they bother? I'm  _ dead, _ remember?" Ben pointed out.

“What’s this?” The traitor gestured at a particular cluster of shapes. “What system is that?”

Ben examined the map, noting that a pretty significant number of the remaining ships had congregated in one location. “Thyferra,” he announced with a sigh.

“What would they want with Thyferra?” Dameron asked.

Ben was hard-pressed to hold in a derisive chuckle, it was so obvious. Rey answered correctly before he could. “Strategic importance. That’s where all bacta comes from.”

“It was one of Snoke’s contingencies,” Ben added. “If things ever got bad, they were supposed to mass around Thyferra and essentially hold it hostage.” 

“Bastards!” Dameron bellowed at Ben’s face, as if it had been Ben’s doing. That was one thing that Ben had learned since becoming supreme leader. Being in charge didn’t mean being  _ in control. _ It was literally impossible to completely control an organization of millions. No matter how much you micromanaged, no matter how many rules you made and policies you changed, some idiot underling would always find some completely unanticipated way to screw things up. Being in charge didn’t mean being in control, it just meant that the cred stopped with you, therefore everything was your fault.

“Snoke’s policy, not mine,” Ben reiterated. It was honestly a little depressing that they’d reverted to Snoke’s playbook so quickly. Ben had spent a whole damn year trying to nudge policies in the direction of more ordinary wartime brutality, and away from the full on genocidal. But no, they were right back to threatening entire worlds. “You may have noticed that under my rule, no large settlements were destroyed, let alone planets. Civilian casualties went down 47 percent.”

“I wonder if that had anything to do with my blowing up your only planet-killing weapon?” Dameron commented snidely.

Ben opened his mouth to defend himself, but Rey silenced him with a look. Right. The main point of this was to earn the trust of these jerks. Then he could be with Rey. 

Dameron’s expression turned thoughtful. “Wait, they can’t destroy Thyferra. They don’t have planet-killing weapons anymore, right?!”

Once again, Ben found himself hard pressed not to groan at Dameron’s idiocy. This was the man who was the de facto heir to Leia Organa’s tactical genius, his mother’s  _ favorite son.  _ As if she could hear the bitter thoughts, Rey squeezed his hand, and Ben was suddenly able to maintain some level of civility. However, he couldn’t help the edge of patient condescension in his voice, like he was explaining something very obvious to a small child. “You  _ don’t _ need  _ planet killing weapons _ . You don’t need to blow a planet up to  _ destroy _ it. A decent sized fleet, or hell, a couple of well fueled dreadnoughts could take care of all the settlements in a few hours, accomplishing essentially the same thing.”

Both men were glaring at Ben as if he had somehow invented the concept of interstellar warfare.

Rey interjected. “Could you order them to stop? You  _ were _ Supreme Leader, they might listen to you, if you showed up on their command ship.”

“Do they know you defected?” Dameron demanded.

Ben considered that. “Probably. Thousands of Sith Cultists saw me do it.”

“Weren’t they destroyed?” Rey asked.

“Yeah, but I’d guess at least one of them could have sent a message to someone before that.” Ben imagined some cultist creating an inane public holonet communique along the lines of  _ Kyle Ren has a blue light saber. LOL.  _

“But even  _ if _ the First Order suspects you defected and died,” Rey explained, “some might be willing to listen to you, and that might be just as useful. If some trust you and some don’t, they’ll be arguing among themselves. That confusion might just give us the distraction we need to take them out before they can destroy Thyferra.”

“That - might actually work,” Poe conceded patronizingly, as if Rey wasn’t damn well the most brilliant mind in the galaxy. 

“I can just walk in there like I never left, and order them to stand down,” Ben added. “They might listen, or they might not. Either way, nothing is going to weaken a navy more than a complete breakdown in the chain of command.”

“Doubt anyone would have the nerve to stand up to him,” Finn muttered. His voice then raised to a declaration. “But there’s one thing you’re both forgetting -” Everyone looked at Finn expectantly, and he eventually got to his point. “This is KYLO REN!”

“Ben!” Rey corrected vehemently. 

Finn ignored her. “He’s asking us to send him straight to First Order command, exactly where Kylo Ren would want to be.”

“Actually, that was Rey’s idea,” Ben pointed out.

The traitor just kept talking. “If we just send him back, then he can become Supreme Leader again, and with more than a little useful intel on us!”

“And YOU’RE forgetting something, Finn!” Rey exclaimed, holding up their joined hands. “He literally needs me to live and while the two of you may not trust him, I’d like to think you trust  _ me _ ! In the extremely unlikely event that he turns his cloak again, then I just let go, and he will die within minutes!”

Strangely enough, insecure as he was, Rey’s casual mention of potentially killing him didn’t bother Ben in the slightest. It was so obviously a bluff. Even when Ben had been her arch nemesis, she’d shown herself unwilling to kill him, let alone now, when he’d literally given his life to save her, and they’d made out a few times.

“Ben and I go to whatever the lead ship is, “ Rey continued, “see if we can get them to stand down, and if not, do everything we can to confuse the hell out of them, and we can send some sort of signal when it’s the ideal time for the Resistance to attack.”

Dameron put his finger to his chin, clearly using all of his meager cognitive faculties to consider Rey’s proposal. “Well, the galaxy can’t go without bacta, and I don’t have any better ideas. We can’t attack yet though. That weird EMP burst at Exegol did a number on the instrumentation of practically every ship we have left. It’ll be a couple of days before we can get it all calibrated.” He paused, and actually deigned to make eye contact with Ben. “If you can manage not to screw this up,  _ or _ stab us in the back, I might actually  _ think _ about starting to trust you.”

Ben was hard pressed to contain his joy. That wasn’t to say that he actually gave a bantha’s fart what Dameron thought of him, but gaining his trust would be a good step in the direction of Ben proving himself to the Resistance, and consequently, to a full, non-secret relationship with Rey. 

All Ben had to do was not screw this up. And while Ben was somewhat aware of his own tendency to bungle everything even when success was practically assured (as he’d proven with his proposal speech in the throne room), he had a good feeling about this. And what if he not only  _ didn’t _ screw things up? What if he managed to achieve a triumphant victory beyond anyone’s expectations? Perhaps with one sparkling success, he could win enough cred with the Resistance, right then? Not to mention how happy it would have made mom...

Ben smirked to himself as he began to mull over just how incredibly well this mission was going to go.

  


* * *

Rey and Ben had made their way to the medbay, as Poe had demanded earlier that day.

Doctor Kolonia examined the lab readouts. “Well, according to this, you’re both surprisingly healthy considering that you were both recently  _ dead _ ,” she said, an unspoken  _ supposedly _ quite clear in her tone.

Rey sighed, realizing that she and Ben would have to demonstrate the Ben’s fading into nonexistence for her as well. They did so, as Rey explained the situation. She was outright lying this time though, saying that her connection with Ben was the result of some sort of  _ accident _ in the Force. Somehow, the whole Dyad thing seemed a bit too personal to share with someone other than a trusted friend.

True to form, Kolonia’s shock at seeing something that was not only medically but physically impossible, was marked only by an arched brow. “You know, some doctors start thinking that they’ve seen everything when they reach my age. But I am now tolerably sure that I actually  _ have. _ ”

Kolonia continued the examination, running her scanner along Ben’s shoulder. “Just to get this out of the way,” she began calmly, “I  _ do  _ know who you really are. Or rather, who you were and who you became.”

Ben made no response.

Kolonia continued on. “Do you know, I was the attending physician at your birth. You had a full set of teeth, as I recall.”

Rey could tell that this statement had some effect on Ben, but he still said nothing.

Kolonia’s focus shifted to the screen on her scanner, and again, one brow shot up.

“What is it?” Rey asked.

“The cellular age - it’s just over  _ 48 hours _ .”

Rey shrugged. “That sounds about right, for Ben,”

Kolonia blinked. “You as well, dear.”

Rey frowned. “But 48 hours? That can’t be; it’s been over a week since I was resuscitated.”

“And the Force never took you,” Ben explained, clearly puzzled. “You stayed flesh and blood the whole time.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Rey said, bewildered.

Kolonia sighed. “Well, medically speaking, literally  _ none _ of this makes sense anyway.”

  


* * *

“A full journey of the hero, Ben Solo has not yet had,” Yoda explained.

Ahsoka Tano nodded. “And Rey hasn’t really had a proper heroine’s journey either. She achieved a hollow victory, but has had no chance to come to terms with her family, or find a balance between feminine and masculine.”

“I agree,” said Luminara Unduli, joining the conversation.

But Ahsoka had more to say. “If you think about it, Rey’s ending up on Tatooine is much more congruent with a villain’s origin story.”

“How do you figure that?” Luke inquired, offended.

“Think about it. A mistreated and abandoned child turns out to be a prodigy, accomplishes great things and wins renown early in life, then suffers a great personal tragedy, and then wanders off to live alone in the wilderness? That course would only make sense in the context of her eventually emerging from her solitude, deranged and evil.”

“Dear maker,” Luke murmured.

“I fail to see how solitude on Tatooine turns one into a deranged villain. I personally had no trouble maintaining my grasp on morality.” Obi-Wan declared.

“Did you?” Ahsoka gave a snort. “You came out of your solitude in order to radicalize a young boy into a  _ forbidden religion _ , and then lied in hopes of getting him to unwittingly kill his own father.”

“Oh snap,” Anakin muttered. 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Perry Dowining!
> 
> Hope you are all okay, and please don't forget to review!
> 
> Next time: The Thirst Awakens


	5. The Thirst Awakens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben both have to wrestle with their grandaddy issues, and Rey later discovers that her dark shadow on the Death Star was just a metaphor for the “dangers” of female sexual empowerment.

The rest of that day was spent acquiring new clothing for Ben. As it turned out, the Resistance had so many new recruits and so few resources, there wasn’t a single uniform to be had. That or the quartermaster was just being a jerk.

A quick hop in the Falcon took them to the nearest settlement on the planet, and they were able to pick up some essentials. The selection at the retail stalls was fairly limited and simple, but a few different colors were available. And how wickedly Ben had smiled when Rey had all but _insisted_ that he continue to wear black. “About that bad-boy fetish…”

They arrived back at the base later that evening, and were immediately accosted by Poe. “Good, you’re back. I need to borrow you, Rey.”

She felt a brief flush of hostility from Ben. She stroked his hand soothingly, and he calmed down. She was starting to get the hang of dealing with him.

Poe motioned for Rey to follow him, and then glared at Ben. "Does your parasitic growth _really_ have to come along?”

“Yes,” Rey replied curtly. She wanted to argue about the _parasite_ comment, but it _was_ technically true.

Poe led them toward the engineering wing. “We acquired a particular type of droid that we’ve been after for a while,” he explained, as they entered the small room. Rey spotted three figures. One was the historian, Beaumont Kin, and beside him stood Threepio. The figure at the center of the room - at first she would have assumed it was humanoid. Bipedal, and dressed in robes of flowing red velvet, and head obscured by a mostly transparent helmet. Except there was no head in it. It had to be some sort of droid.

“HEYHAAAAY!” The enthusiastic and unmistakable greeting revealed a third presence. Babu Frick appeared, hovering around the droid on a small platform. 

At first, no one spoke. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

Poe gestured to the headless droid. “One of Emperor Palpatine’s Sentinels. Beau, you wanna explain?”

Beaumont quickly obliged. “Palpatine’s sentinels have been around since the Clone Wars, used as personal couriers to bring important messages to various people. Babu, would you?”

The empty helmet suddenly filled with the holo-projected image of Palpatine himself. Rey literally shuddered at the sight of that face. 

Beaumont continued. “He’d send them to people, usually people he wanted to intimidate, to deliver some sort of message. We’ve been trying to get a hold of one for months, and more recently, a new ally with connections to Imperial memorabilia collectors managed to get one, and here we are. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to activate it or get at any of its data, due to its programming. The things were designed to deliver a message only to the recipient, which was confirmed by blood sample,” he explained, gesturing to a small, needle-like appendage protruding from its finger. “We know it’s a long shot, but we thought perhaps _your_ blood might make the thing talk, and unlock its data stores."

Rey rounded on Poe. “You TOLD HIM?!” she exclaimed in something between a scream and a yelp.

Poe threw up his hands. “What?! This is important business. For all we know, there are other Palpatines out there, and this might be the way we find them!”

“That was told to you in confidence!” she screeched, trying to recall whether she had outright told them not to tell. That should have gone without saying! Her eyes fell on Threepio. “And you told HIM too?!

By then, Ben seemed to have caught on to what had happened. “He told them about your grandfather?!” Obviously, this predicament had great salience for Ben. He released Rey’s hand and literally reached for his lightsaber. 

Rey slapped the offending hand, and grabbed onto it, squeezing tightly. “Stay out of this,” she hissed, repeating her silent mantra in her head. _He died for me he died for me he died for me..._

The outrage was rolling off him in waves, but he managed to keep both his mouth and his saber closed. 

Beaumont stepped forward, putting his hands up in a warding gesture. “Hey look, I worked for General Organa for years. Obviously I’m not the sort of person who’s going to judge someone by their heritage.” 

That calmed her somewhat, but even so, she spoke through gritted teeth. “Beaumont, I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t speak to anyone else about thi -” 

Before she could finish, Ben chimed in with his own threat for Threepio, apparently unable to help himself. Rey could almost _hear_ Han Solo’s voice coming out of Ben’s mouth. “If you tell ANYONE about Rey’s grandfather, it’ll be the Spice Mines of Kessel.”

Threepio shuddered. “Yes Master Ben, of course. As you command. I shall never speak of it to anyone. No word shall ever pass…” the protocol droid continued his placating assurances.

Rey was rubbing her free hand against her forehead. “You really think that _thing_ is going to know where other clones might be?” That didn’t make much sense. Why would a droid programmed as a disposable messenger have that kind of information?

“We won't know until we get the damn thing to talk, and we thought that maybe with your blood…”

Threepio chimed in. “Droids are, as you know, considered the property of their masters, and their programming generally includes a default protocol to obey the closest living relative of their master, in the event of their master’s death, unless otherwise instructed. It is very possible that this one will consider you its new mistress, therefore it will have to grant you access to all of its encrypted data.”

“Fine.” Rey stepped toward the droid, briefly making eye contact with the ghostly visage of her biological grandfather. He looked considerably younger, more like the kitchy vintage propaganda posters that she’d come across. But the thing was still creepy as hell. She held out her hand, and the droid dutifully extended its needle, and pricked her finger.

“Processing sample,” the droid said, in the slow, creaking, unctuous voice of Palpatine himself. “Processing complete. Greetings my grandchild.”

Rey stood there dumbly for a moment. Poe made an encouraging gesture. “I, um, do you have a message for me?”

“Not at this time.”

What else could she say... “I am, um, looking for my, um…” Just say it. “Grandfather. I, um, want to, er, help him - do something, um, evil. Are there any clones of him left?”

There was a short pause. “Scans of publicly available holonet information indicate that I am now deceased.”

“Are there any others?”

“My databank has no record of additional living clones.”

“Would you give me that information if you knew it?” Rey asked, glaring at Poe for violating her privacy over some far-fetched hunch.

“I have,” the droid said simply. “No additional clones of myself are known to me.”

“Stop referring to yourself _as_ Palpatine! You’re a droid!” Rey snapped abruptly. She noticed Babu hovering at the droid’s shoulder, a data transfer cable at the ready. She modulated her tone to something slightly more polite. “I wish you to allow that person to access your memory core.”

The droid seemed to consider it. “Access granted.”

Babu plugged in the cable, looked at his data pad, and gave a thumbs up.

Rey turned back to Poe, “Did you need anything else from me?” she said, not even attempting to conceal her lingering anger at him.

Poe shook his head, and flashed a patronizing smile. “But won’t you sleep better, knowing there aren’t more out there?”

Babu suddenly piped up, actually attempting to speak Basic. “He grandpa you?!” Babu asked, gesturing to the droid.

“Yes Babu, technically he is. I would be very grateful if you kept that to yourself.”

Babu nodded. “Secret,” he acknowledged. “And make grandpa. Good grandpa.”

Rey didn’t quite catch the latter part of what he said, but he seemed to be agreeing to keep her heritage quiet, and that was all that really mattered to her at the moment. She gave a little tug to Ben’s sleeve, and exited the room. 

* * *

“You sure you don’t want me to -” Ben paused, actually thinking his words through, “I guess I don’t have to _kill_ Dameron, but at _least_ let me beat him up a little! That was messed up!”

Rey sighed, flashing him a half-smile. “I appreciate the offer, actually, but if any asses need kicking, _you_ of all people know that I am perfectly capable of doing that myself.”

Ben chuckled at the jibe, and fought the urge to kiss her.

Just as Rey and Ben seemed to put to rest the subject of rude revelations of one’s evil grandparent, something rather odd happened. Something that Ben would later add to the mental pile of evidence that his life was some kind of cosmic joke, and not a very funny one at that.

While turning a corner, Ben very nearly ran into someone coming round in the opposite direction.

“I beg your pardon,” the man said, in a polite upper class Coruscanti accent. Tall and thin, nearing middle age, with sandy hair and an angular face. He only looked vaguely familiar, at first. Where had Ben seen him before? The man was also examining Ben’s face quite intently. “You’re her son,” he said, not unkindly. “Ben.”

And then Ben realized. A face he’d only ever seen in holovids, but one he wasn’t likely to forget. “You’re _that_ senator,” Ben said coldly. It was the senator that had revealed his mother’s biological father, live before the entire senate, in some nasty, partisan stunt. 

“Former senator,” the man corrected quietly. “Ransolm Casterfo, at your service.”

Ben’s eyes narrowed. If he was of a mind to blame all of his problems on someone else, this man made a tempting target. 

The revelation of Ben’s relation to Vader had been fairly instrumental in kicking off his fall. It corroborated so much of what the voices said, particularly that the darkness was an inescapable part of him, and that his family was a bunch of lying hypocrites. The emotional fallout had also led to a few nasty outbursts, that had probably played a role in Luke’s decision to put his twin sister’s son down like a rabid kath hound. It had probably also encouraged the other students to instantly assume the worst of Ben, in the aftermath.

Now that he thought about it, this man’s folly had impacted more than just Ben. Mom had been running for First Senator, and was widely projected to win, until this man had single-handedly destroyed both her campaign and her career. How would the galaxy be different if mom had won? With the extensive resources of the New Republic at her disposal, he had no doubt that she would have revealed the First Order within weeks. The New Republic could have taken them out years before they were at full strength. The Hosnian Cataclysm would never have happened. 

Kylo Ren would have never existed. Billions of people would be alive. _Dad_ would be alive. If only this idiot of a senator had the decency to keep out of his family’s private business.

If Ben were of a mind to blame someone else for all his problems, this man made a very tempting target indeed. Fortunately, Ben was not really disposed to blame someone for everything that was wrong with his life. That had been the lesson of Crait.

Just as Ben was coming to this conclusion, the senator, Casterfo, did something rather unexpected. The man literally fell to his knees before Ben. 

“Some time ago, I had the opportunity to apologize to your mother, and I am grateful for that. But I’d always wanted to make my apologies to her son as well. When she first confronted me, that was all she thought of. She didn’t seem to care that her career was over or that her trauma was public. Her outrage was on _your_ behalf. That you would have to find out like that. And considering, from what I’ve been told, it caused you to go into hiding for several years, I know it must have impacted you. Can you ever accept my sincerest apologies for what I did to your family?"

One would think that after spending a year as Supreme Leader, Ben would have been fairly accustomed to groveling, but at the moment, he couldn’t imagine a more awkward situation. Rey was staring at him inquisitively. Random passersby were doing double-takes. Ben was willing to do practically anything if it would get this idiot back on his feet. “Apology accepted,” Ben mumbled as he stepped around the kneeling man, pulling Rey along in his wake.

“What the hell was that?” She asked a moment later.

“Long story.”

* * *

The fact that Rey had her own private room was a testament to her importance within the Resistance. It even had a window. And Rey’s demand for a double bed had been heeded, sort of. Instead of one small cot, there were now two, pushed together. 

The two of them wordlessly moved to separate corners, Rey changing into her oversized night shirt, and Ben into a pair of loose-fitting black pants they’d purchased at the outpost. Without thinking, Rey settled into the left cot, and Ben into the right. A moment later, Rey got up again, approaching the door, and tapping on the control. It slid aside.

“I think we should leave this open,” she stated.

“Why?”

Rey shrugged. “Plausible deniability.” If the door was open all night, then people would be less likely to think that she and Ben were doing anything aside from sleeping.

* * *

Luke Skywalker considered what had been said. “I don’t think Rey ending up on Tatooine was that strange. As you said, Master Yoda, the path of the hero varies. Sometimes it just involves a hero saving a community though battle and sacrifice, and then going off into the sunset.”

“A narrower and incomplete view of the path, _that_ is,” Yoda replied. “Appeals only to people of a select cultural background, it does. The true hero’s path, universal it is. Engraved unconsciously upon every sentient soul, for thousands of years it has been. Represents it does, the struggles all face, and the courage and wisdom all gain through this struggle.”

“AND-!” Anakin Skywalker chimed in, “The ending that _you eventually_ got, son. You brought wisdom and inspiration to the galaxy, idolized by children everywhere. But what about Rey? Not only did she seem like she would never find mortal happiness, but she also implicitly seemed destined for obscurity, celebrated by no one.”

“Hmm.” Ahsoka spoke with an unmistakable tone of sarcasm. “Luke is idolized for being powerful, and Rey is punished. I _wonder_ why that could be...”

* * *

Sunlight streamed in from the small window, and Rey’s eyes slowly opened. She realized that she and Ben had forgotten the precaution of tying their hands together at night. But as it happened, they needn’t have bothered. Rey awoke with her head resting on his chest, her shoulder nestled against his armpit, one meaty arm draped around her.

She gazed up at his face, eyes closed a little more tightly than usual, no doubt due to the glare of morning sun. His brows were very slightly furrowed, as if he was thinking really hard about something. It was adorable. 

Rey smiled as she nuzzled against his shoulder, draping an arm over his chest. This really was the most comfortable place in the galaxy. How gratifying, that they should fit together so nicely, even in this relatively innocent way. How wonderful that this time three days ago, she’d been certain she’d never see him again, and was now awakening in his arms.

Without really thinking, she allowed her hand to caress the firm skin of his chest. So smooth. She wondered if his chest was hairless. She shut one eye, and looked across his skin. There didn’t seem to be any hair at all. He must have done something to remove it. She grinned at the supposition that Ben had just been rubbing beard-suppressant on his chest, moments before that one fateful Force bond conversation. Would have explained the alluring sheen, she supposed.

She continued smoothing her hand across his magnificent chest, and then running her fingers along the chiseled ridges of his abs. That was when she felt him stir. He smiled that radiant smile at her, and she knew he was thinking what she had, moments ago. How amazing it was that they were actually together.

“Morning, sweetheart,” he murmured, pushing back a stray lock of her hair.

“Did I wake you?”

His smile got even bigger. That toothy, almost goofy smile that accompanied his chuckles. “Maybe. I don’t mind though. I like your hands.”

Rey resumed petting his chest and stomach. As she did so, she accidentally-on-purpose allowed her elbow to brush against his sleeping pants, very slightly grazing the bulge that they concealed. She could not quite account for the abrupt onset of complete fascination with that bulge. Suddenly, it was all she could think about. How could she arrange to tactfully touch it again? She continued the fairly innocent petting him for over a minute, before again allowing her elbow, and this time, a bit of forearm, to brush that fascinating body part. She could swear that it seemed harder now. Had that one brush of her elbow had such an effect? 

She again began scheming for how she could touch it again, this time actually asking herself why she needed to pretend it was an accident. But Rey had absorbed the same cultural messaging that most human females did. Good girls did not touch penises. Perhaps, if the penis’s owner was nice enough to said good girl, she might _allow_ herself to be touched _by_ the penis, but a good girl did not initiate such interactions. Even though Rey intellectually knew that it was gender-biased nonsense, the notion was a little too internalized to shake easily.

For a moment, she envisioned a version of herself without such reservations. A Rey that _took whatever she wanted,_ unrestrained by sexist bantha shit. 

She realized that she _had_ met such a person, in the ruins of the Death Star. Dark Rey. And strangely, now that Rey had defeated Palpatine, Dark Rey didn’t seem so terrifyingly intertwined with the evil of the emperor. Dark Rey seemed more like an object of fascination, not unlike Kylo Ren had been. Someone that might be misunderstood, more than evil. Except that Dark Rey was a part of herself, she supposed. And as such was under her control.

Rey closed her eyes, imagining herself in a dress of rich black velvet, lips smiling sexily around pointed teeth that were not demonic, so much as kitten-like. Her fingertips glided down the central ridge between his abs, down, down, all the way down, until her whole hand rested brazenly on his cock. He made a noise then. That quavering sigh from the interrogation room, when he’d first realized her power.

What her hand found was not unexpected, and yet still incredible. She could feel the raw heat radiating off his cock, even through the pants. She ran her hand up its length, fingers split, with her index and pinky running up the sides, center fingers along the shaft. Without even actually meaning to, her thumb caught the slit at the front of his pants, and suddenly she had touched bare skin. She’d never felt anything so smooth. Somehow silky and velvety at the same time. Oh she could stroke this thing _forever._ She had a sudden and surprisingly strong impulse to press her lips against it, smoothing them up the hot, satiny skin, just for the sensation alone.

“Rey,” he breathed. She looked up, immediately relishing the naked hunger sparkling in his dark eyes. But there was apprehension too. Could she have gone too far? Would he tell her to stop?

“What is it?”

It took him some seconds to answer, as if he were gathering all his strength for some impossible task. “You do realize that the door is still open, right?”

Rey let out a noise that was an exact cross between a gasp and a scream, removing her hand from his package instantly.

There was a short, slightly uncomfortable silence, that was immediately overtaken by an entirely mutual fit of giggles. Rey buried her face in his armpit to stifle the laughter, and Ben was literally biting his knuckles to contain his mirth.

It was a good minute before Rey felt equal to speaking again. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”

He grinned at her. “Don’t apologize. You don’t _ever_ need to apologize for touching me.” He looked away, though not in any apparent discomfort, as he was still smirking wickedly. It was more the far-away look someone gets when mentally reliving something particularly pleasurable. “We should get up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Perry Downing! And thanks to all you wonderful reviewers!
> 
> Next time: The Thirst Intensifies


	6. The Thirst Intensifies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben is voluntold he'll be helping to train Finn and Rey will have to manage the interpersonal friction, followed by sexy Reylo times in the forest.

Rey and Ben, hand-in-hand as always, walked out of the mess hall later that morning. Rey was rather frustrated and exhausted at having to repeatedly explain why they were holding hands. The explanation was mostly a lie, a sort of _accident in the Force,_ mainly because the real story was too long and full of hard-to-explain mysticism.

As they left, they passed through one of the open spaces near the center of the base, and were approached by Finn. Or rather, Rey was approached by Finn. Finn shot Ben an _are you still here_ sort of look.

“So,” Finn began, civil but clearly perturbed by Ben’s presence, “I’ve been doing that meditation exercise you showed me.”

“Good,” Rey praised him sincerely.

There was a short pause. Clearly Finn expected her to say more, and continued. “You said that you’d start the rest of my training as soon as you got back.”

 _Shit_! Rey narrowly avoided swearing aloud. She’d completely forgotten about Finn’s training! It seemed that every brain cell in her head had been completely occupied by Ben. “Right! Yes, I was just about to come talk to you about that!” she lied lamely.

Finn just stood there expectantly for another few seconds. “So, can we start constructing my saber? You said you’d bring back parts.”

 _Double shit!_ Another thing that she’d completely forgotten about in the wake of Ben’s resurrection. Her mind began running around in circles, trying to think of how she could avoid admitting that she’d forgotten, too distracted by having her soulmate, and his luscious pecs, back in her life. Rey’s frantic mental search landed on a possible solution. She reached into her bag and pulled out Leia’s saber. “You can just borrow this one,” she said quickly.

Ben’s reaction was instantaneous. A shockwave of silent, psychic resentment and plain old hurt feelings crashed over Rey, and she instantly realized the gravity of her error.

Finn looked at the weapon. “This is General Organa's saber. Weren’t you going to bury it?”

Rey was so preoccupied by Ben’s distress, that she didn’t even answer Finn’s question. She turned to Ben, finding his lips literally quivering with either outrage, emotional pain or both. “Just temporarily,” she clarified to Ben. “Just until I get some parts to help him make a new one.”

That didn’t seem to help. His entire being still seemed to radiate distress, and she got the feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to hold it in much longer. She turned back to Finn. “Will you excuse us a minute?” 

Rey led Ben around a corner, to a nearby alcove. She stood toe-to-toe with him, taking his other hand as well. “Ben, I had to,” she whispered vehemently. “He’d just be borrowing it.” 

Ben said nothing, his eyes downcast. She got the feeling that he was actually taking her advice on thinking about her feelings before speaking. That made her feel ten times worse.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “It was that or admit that literally _everything else_ flew out of my head the second I laid eyes on you again.”

He met her gaze, at that. She continued. “And that’s not a very - “ she paused, searching for the words, “ _strictly allies_ sort of sentiment. If I let them know how I feel about you, they’ll trust you even _less_ than they do now. I promise, I’ll never _ever_ give your mother’s saber away.” She paused again, recalling the notion of passing it on to their children. “Unless it was to someone we _both_ completely agreed on,” she added.

Ben nodded, responding only with a little half-smile of acceptance. She suspected he knew exactly what future beneficiary she had in mind. Rey glanced around, and kissed him on the cheek.

The two of them returned to Finn, who was now glaring rather suspiciously. 

Rey decided that brazening it out was the only thing to be done. “Right!” she shouted enthusiastically. Your first lightsaber lesson!”

Finn continued to scowl at Ben. “Does the _parasite_ have to be here too?”

Rey heard Ben’s teeth grind together, as she answered. “Of course, he’s going to help.”

“He is?!” Finn replied.

“I am?!” Ben exclaimed simultaneously. 

“Yes,” she told Ben, with a meaningful look. “He is!” She turned her gaze back to Finn. “It’s really quite lucky that he’s here. Ben had a decade more training than I did, and he was Luke’s apprentice for years.”

Finn seemed to concede the point with a slight huff. “Is he gonna help teach me dueling? I always _wanted_ a rematch.”

“You thought that was a _match?”_ Ben replied nastily.

“Stop it!” Rey shouted. “No dueling. I think we’d better start with blaster deflection.”

“I’d rather do dueling,” Finn stated.

“No!” Rey shouted, trying to regain control over the conversation. “We start with blaster deflection,” she said, trying to sound as stern as she could. “Defense is essential, both in terms of safety and in terms of Jedi philosophy, and in this day and age, you are far more likely to encounter an attack by a blaster than a melee weapon.”

“True,” Ben agreed.

Rey pulled her remote out of her pack, activating it. “Now, let’s see what you can do.”

She sensed a whole new wave of emotion from Ben when Finn ignited Leia’s saber. This time, Ben’s sentiments seemed less hurt and more pissed off.

The remote bobbed in the air for a moment, then shot toward Finn, who spun his saber at the oncoming bolt. The miniature blast hit him in the thigh, and Finn gave a grunt of pain. “Let me try again,” he declared stalwartly. Again, the remote fired, Finn spun the saber with a flourish, and this time, it hit him on the shoulder. 

“Keep it simple,” Rey suggested. “No need to spin, just deflect it.”

“That’s how _you_ do it,” Finn pointed out.

Ben apparently felt the need to be a dick. “Yeah, well she’s actually goo- “

“More experienced,” Rey cut him off. “Finn, just keep the strokes simple, to start.”

Finn nodded, and tried again. This time, when the remote fired, Finn spun his whole body around before swinging at it. It hit him on the chest, this time.

“No, no no!” Ben exclaimed. Rey couldn't quite decide whether she was angry that he was being harsh, or pleased that Ben was actually taking an active role in the training. Ben continued on. “You’re focused too much on looking cool! Survival comes first!” Ben released Rey’s hand, ignited his saber, and demonstrated a straight up-and-down strike. “No nonsense. Just knock the thing out of the air. Like swatting a bug. Blade in the path of the bolt! Up! Down! Up! Down! Left! Right! Now try again.”

Finn gave a silent groan, and raised his saber again. The remote fired, and Finn did a simple up-down into its path. The bolt obligingly ricocheted off the saber, and into the ground. Finn raised an eyebrow, apparently surprised that it worked. Again the remote fired, and again, Finn deflected. 

“Good!” Ben shouted abruptly. His expression seemed to change to slight dismay immediately afterwards, as if he’d just let out a very loud and unintentional belch.

Rey joined in, shouting encouragement. Finn may have hated where the advice came from, but he didn’t seem able to contain his pride in his own progress, grinning broadly at Rey before resuming his practice. 

“Keep going, I’ll be right back!” Rey shouted, then lowered her voice to a whisper for Ben. “I need to use the ‘fresher, be right back.” In truth, it was as much to get a break from all of this interpersonal friction, as a call of nature.

Ben nodded. “I’ve got a good ten minutes, I think,” he told her. They were starting to get pretty good at this whole life-force dependence thing. 

Rey approached the building, did her business, and began cleansing her hands. Rose Tico stood nearby, combing her hair. “Hey,” she greeted Rey warmly. 

Rey smiled as she continued cleansing her hands. “Hi.”

It seemed that Rose felt obliged to make some sort of conversation. “So, you and Leia’s son, huh?”

Rey’s lips pressed together in an expression of slight dismay. She then launched into her partially true explanation of how they only held hands because there had been some accident in the Force, he tried to save her, she tried to save him, etc.

Rose’s head cocked to the side, obviously not buying Rey’s _only allies_ narrative. “Rey, you two are into each other. A Miraluka could see it.”

Rey reflected on how it seemed rather interesting that she had Finn and Poe decently fooled, but Rose had seen right through the subterfuge.

Rose continued, speaking as she began cleaning her teeth. “My real question is _why_ you’re lying about it.”

Rey considered that. Could she trust Rose with the truth? Would the supposed Girls Code she'd heard about prove strong enough? She smiled sheepishly. “We’re trying to keep it private.”

“Why?”

An idea came to Rey. One that wasn’t entirely a lie. “Finn and Poe really don’t like him.”

Rose finished cleaning her teeth. “So what? They don’t have to date him. What business is it of theirs?” She paused. “Is it a Jedi thing? You’re not allowed have relationships, right?”

Rey arched a brow. Rose was a clever and educated woman, but Rey had never imagined that she might be familiar with old Jedi customs. “How did you know that?”

Rose’s expression changed. Not quite embarrassment. Possibly more like relief, like she’d been hoping for an opportunity to have this conversation. “You might have noticed that Finn and I haven’t been hanging out together as much.”

Rey definitely had noticed, and honestly had been a bit bummed out about it. They seemed like they were doing so well. Not quite a couple, but centimeters away from it. She’d wondered what had happened between them.

Rose continued. “And he’s been spending more time with you.”

Rey flinched. She had a feeling this would come up, eventually. “Rose, we’re just friends.” She paused. “I like Finn. He’s really cute and sweet; certainly caught my eye when we first met. But after getting to know him more - he’s great to hang out with, but I don’t think either of us have any real interest in more.”

That was true, though somewhat oversimplifying. Rey had noticed the shift in Finn a few weeks ago too, and had only fleetingly wondered if his feelings for her were changing. But she knew that Finn - there was no other way to put it - had no particular interest in fucking her. Sure he’d flirted with her a bit when they first met, and she’d even flirted back, but that seemed to go by the wayside pretty quickly. In the year since, she’d been alone with Finn plenty of times, many of which were fairly conducive to romance - he’d had ample opportunity and no reason to hesitate that she knew of, but Rey had never sensed so much as a fleeting impulse to kiss her. He was more protective than anything else.

And there was no doubt in Rey’s mind that she had read him correctly, in that respect. She had developed an uncanny ability to perceive when a fellow sentient had strong sexual intentions toward her. It was a talent she’d had well before her Force powers had manifested, and she was not at all convinced that the ability had anything to do with the Force. For a young girl, on her own, with no one to defend her, knowing who had that type of designs on you wasn’t a matter of social acumen, it was a matter of survival. 

Now that she’d thought about it, she probably _should_ have been more terrified of Kylo Ren, in that respect, when she was kidnapped. But she hadn’t been. She’d noticed his appreciative looks as any woman would, but he mostly projected a sense of fascination and bewilderment at that time. Like he genuinely had no idea what he wanted to do with her, just that he wanted to do _something_ . Bend her to his will? Teach her everything he knew? Worship her as a goddess? _Something._ The sense that he might have some permacrete intention to have sex with her didn’t really become apparent in his vibes until after they’d connected emotionally and touched hands. Kylo Ren was too busy hating everyone in the galaxy to think much about sex, and Ben Solo was apparently a romantic at heart. 

Rose smiled. “I know, Rey. Finn told me you were just friends, and he’s a very bad liar.” She paused. “I’m happy for you and Ben though. You two make a cute couple, and he seems to be holding up pretty well, considering.”

That got Rey’s attention, and drew her away from the actual topic of conversation. Did Rose know who Ben used to be? “Considering what?”

Rose shrugged. “Well, I mean, his estranged mother died without him getting a chance to say goodbye.”

Rey suppressed a sigh of relief, but also considered what Rose had said. Now that she thought about it, Ben was _holding up_ rather well, considering all he’d been through. Almost suspiciously well.

Only a little over a week ago, he’d discovered that the only mentor he’d ever trusted was actually the mastermind behind everything that had ever gone wrong in his life. Practically that his whole life was a lie. And now he was making a good-faith effort to ingratiate himself to people who were very recently his mortal enemies. And who was she kidding, that included her. Not to mention his mother dying in the most what-the-fuck manner possible, without him ever having a chance to hear that she forgave him. Rey supposed he might be bottling it all up. Maybe she was asking too much of him, having him help train Finn, especially after her hurtful gaffe with his mother’s saber.

Still focused more on Ben’s mental health than Rose’s implications about Finn, Rey returned to Finn and Ben at a brisk stride, half-expecting to find one of them in a headlock with the other. In fact, they were just as she left them, Finn practicing with the remote, and Ben watching somewhat grudgingly. She took Ben’s hand, and leaned over to speak quietly to him. “Ben, before, what did you generally do to - you know - unwind?”

Ben shot her a sarcastic half-smile. “Because I was such a _mellow_ guy?”

“There must have been something. Something other than -” She didn’t finish, but she knew her meaning was clear. _Something other than destroying lives and property._

“I guess I used to work out a lot.”

Rey supposed that made sense. Exercise was how he blew off steam, and this was a man with a lot of steam to blow off. It certainly explained his magnificent physique.

An idea came to her. “I could show you my training course. The remotes aren’t set up, but it would still be a good work out.”

“Sounds great,” Ben said, glancing at Finn. Rey suspected that he would have accepted any task that got him out of training someone who despised him with such good reason.

Rey announced her and Ben’s plans to the new padawan, making up her reasons as she went. She needed to, um, make sure Ben was familiar with the training course, before they took Finn on his first run. Finn seemed to accept this with only a brief suspicious glance at Ben, and returned to his deflection training.

Hand-in-hand, Rey and Ben sprinted off into the jungle. It was certainly an interesting challenge, doing this while holding hands. There were certain points when it was impossible, and they would split for brief moments, always with a tiny pang of loss at separation, and a sense of completeness restored, when rejoined. 

As they continued on, with fewer and fewer opportunities to join hands, the run eventually became a sort of race, with plenty of cocksure grins and playful shoves. At length, they arrived at the end of the course, both heart rates pleasantly elevated.

Needless to say, Rey won. She shot him an arched-browed smirk.

He shrugged. “It’s been a while since I’ve accepted that anything I ever attempt to do, you’ll do better.” He glanced at the surroundings, a small, hillside clearing in the forest, with a pleasant view of the waterfall. “You like this place,” he said. It wasn’t a question, simply a statement of knowing her taste.

“Yes.” 

He was absolutely right. This end of the course happened to be one of Rey’s favorite places in the galaxy. It was also, she realized in that moment, rather isolated. Private. Another scheme entered Rey’s mind.

“I don’t think anyone else ever comes out this far,” she hinted. Ben gave a hum of acknowledgement, turning to face her with a searching look. He’d clearly sensed some subtext to her statement, but either couldn’t figure it out, or couldn’t believe his own luck.

Rey decided that further hints were needed. “I think we’re _completely_ alone.”

His eyes widened slightly at that, and there was that charming, toothy, silly smile. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was an invitation.”

She gave a smile that she hoped struck some sort of balance between demure and inviting. As Ben slowly stalked toward her, she couldn’t help a fleeting recollection of when they first met, in a forest clearing not too different from this one. Except, here, she could see his face, lips still spread in that contagious, adorable smile, and this time, she fell into his arms quite willingly. 

Rey was fairly sure that she’d imagined scenarios just like this, though there was a time when Rey would have rather died then admit it to a living soul. However, she supposed she’d never imagined that smile. How could she? How could anyone suppose the existence of something so beautiful before actually seeing it?

For a moment, he just gazed down at her. The smile wasn’t just his mouth, she realized. It was his whole face. The look in his eyes. Slowly, his face lowered, and lips met with the sound of her own pleasured sigh. That seemed to embolden him, and she felt his tongue sweep across her lip. Almost instantly, the sweet, affectionate kiss transformed into something far more passionate, tongues rolling together in an intimate dance. At one point, she felt him take a step forward, holding her tightly to keep her from stumbling. She almost dared to wonder if he meant to back her up to a tree and have her, then and there.

But no. Delicious as the thought was, that was not going to happen. Not today anyway. Damn her stupid menstruation! Why did it have to happen NOW, when she finally had the literal man of her dreams in her life, and no longer evil?! She planted her feet firmly on the ground, and he didn’t seem to press the matter further.

She attempted to put aside her resentment of her body’s poor timing, and lose herself in his kiss again. His lips were so soft. So wonderfully silky. And the slight texture of his tongue, so velvety. Eventually, this got her thinking about something else of his that was silky and velvety. And, she supposed, not necessarily completely off limits, even with the data port between her legs closed for maintenance. 

She pulled back, and attempting to channel her sexually-confident dark alter-ego, Rey stared up into Ben’s eyes. “You know how yesterday, we talked about how you shouldn’t be telling me _what I want_?”

Ben nodded, eyes locked with hers.

“If I tell you I _want_ something, you don’t get to tell me that I actually _don’t_. No misplaced gallantry. If I say I _want_ something, I mean it.” Rey paused. “If _you_ don’t want something, then by all means, speak up. But you don’t get to tell _me_ what I _don’t_ _want_.”

Ben nodded again, lips parted as he literally panted with suspense as to where this was going.

“Ben, you don’t get to tell me that I don’t want _this,”_ Rey murmured, slowly dropping to her knees. Ben’s eyes widened as if in fear, but his grin spoke much louder. 

Eyes never leaving his, Rey reached for his belt. “May I?”

Ben just let out one of his spine-tinglingly sexy quavering sighs along with a huge elated smile, and Rey began to undo his trouser belt, fingers grazing the hard skin of his stomach as she opened his pants.

Once freed, his cock sprung forward so enthusiastically, it almost slapped her on the forehead. Up close, it was much more intimidating, almost as red and furious as his old lightsaber. 

Recalling the exquisite texture, she ran a single finger up along the shaft, allowing her whole hand to caress it as she moved back down. So wonderfully smooth. Warm. Alive. She could literally feel a slight echo of his pulse. Such an interesting concept, the cock. A part of him, and yet sort of with a mind of its own. Attached but sort of ungovernable. Irrepressibly blunt and honest.

She looked up, finding his head craned forward, dark eyes watching each and every caress, with eager greed.

Rey may have been inexperienced, but she was not uneducated. She’d passed many a lonely night reading cheap, sexy holobooks, and had watched a handful of vids too. She had at least some vague idea of what to do down here.

She leaned forward, allowing her bottom lip to graze the very tip. And then, just a tiny little lick. It tasted like flesh, not really different from his mouth. That was, until a little bead of something seemed to appear on her tongue, along with a deep, rumbling groan.

The most wicked though crossed her mind just then. A thought she should have been ashamed of… This was the taste of Kylo Ren’s seed. Ben may have been redeemed, but the body was the same. A dichotomy that made this act was not only sweet and intimate, but also dark and forbidden. Contrary to all she’d been led to expect, there were some rather intense feelings building in her own loins.

That thought, immoral as it was, seemed to set her whole being ablaze with desire. With one decisive notion, she slid her lips down around him.

“Rey…” Ben sighed. There was such an ardent devotion in his voice, as if with that single word, he was pledging her his soul. Their soul.

Somehow that was even kinkier. She was sucking the dangerous Kylo Ren’s cock, while her sweet, affectionate Ben watched, eyes alight with lust and adoration. That scenario was so much more debauched than even her wildest fantasies. She reached around, grabbing an ass cheek in each hand, and she actually whimpered aloud, the sound muffled by his silken, straining shaft. Mind going hazy with euphoria, she wasn’t quite able to account for her own illogically intense feelings of stimulation. Was he doing something with the Force?

She briefly wondered if he might be imagining something similar regarding his dark alter ego. That he could be fantasizing about Kylo Ren with the beautiful and infuriating scavenger bent to his will at last, on her knees and serving him with more enthusiasm than he'd ever dreamed.

But then, as if to give the lie to this supposition, two large hands appeared on either side of her, grasping her face firmly as he withdrew himself with a wet pop. Before she could protest, he dropped to his knees himself, one arm pulling her into an almost frighteningly strong embrace and kissing her incredibly deeply. She barely registered the few pumping motions of his other hand, and her mouth filled with a series of moans, each in time with the abrupt throb of her own climax. 

His other arm found its way around her, and he just held her there for a long moment. She noticed something warm and wet soaking through her trousers and onto her hip.

Ben’s grip on her loosened slightly, and he leaned back against the hillside, pulling her down with him. She snuggled into that cozy spot under his shoulder, as his panting began to taper off. She was only vaguely aware of how dirty the ground was, but in that moment, couldn't have cared less.

“Just let me catch my breath a sec. Then it’s your turn,” he whispered.

Rey shook her head. “Not today, I’m afraid,” she replied, quite aware of the bloody mess still occupying her nether regions. 

“I don’t care!” he declared courageously, nuzzling against her hair, one hand creeping down across her stomach. “I want to you to -”

She grabbed his wrist, arresting its progress. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think I’d enjoy it properly,” she told him honestly. “And you don’t need to worry about that. I felt it too. I am _completely_ satisfied.

As usual, their linked minds bridged the gap left by shy innuendo. He leaned back to look at her face, his brows raised. “You actually -”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? You really -”

“Yes!” she assured him, tone slightly impatient with the notion that he thought she didn't know an orgasm when she felt it.

His lips spread in that toothy, goofy smile of his, alight with joy, and just a tinge of relief as if thanking the Force for making him the luckiest man alive. 

“Maybe it’s because we share a life force,” he mused.

“It makes sense,” Rey replied. “Feeling each other’s physical sensations is normal for strong Force bonds, let alone what we have -”

“A dyad,” he finished her sentence. 

A minute or two of thoughtful silence brought Rey to an idea. “I wonder if people like us - maybe that’s part of why the Jedi and Sith started as a single religion, but eventually split. It fits, the Jedi with their stricture against anything resembling a lifelong partnership, and how the Sith basically restructured their whole system around a pair of people, locked simultaneously in alliance and rivalry. The Jedi feared dyads and the Sith coveted them.”

Ben nodded thoughtfully. “You know, Luke spent years researching what led to the split, and you may have just figured it out in the span of a few sentences.”

Rey smiled. “Don’t sound so surprised at my cleverness,” she chided, playfully tapping him on the tip of his nose.

“I’m not,” he said affectionately. “Of course you’re extremely smart. How could you not be? You're a Palpatine.”

Rey tensed. “What?”

Ben instantly perceived her outrage. “I meant that as a compliment.”

Her eyes narrowed. “A compliment? Comparing me to Palpatine? Implying that I get my smartness from him?!”

She could tell that his first instinct was to deny that was what he meant, but it seemed his own defiant and self-righteous nature was creeping in. “What? Why is that so terrible? Just because you might have inherited your brilliance from him doesn’t mean that it doesn’t _belong_ to you? And the man _was_ terrifyingly smart. He ran both sides of a galactic war for years, and hardly anyone ever found out. We can hate him all we want, but he _was_ a genius.”

That placated Rey only slightly, and she couldn’t help throwing in a sullen jibe. “I took the Skywalker name, maybe we should just _trade_ if you admire him so much!”

The look on Ben’s face darkened, and he released her from his embrace, sitting up. “ _Admire_ him? I never said that!” Now it was apparently his turn to be outraged. “You think I _admire_ Palpatine? I have even more reason to hate him than you do!”

Rey sat up too. “ _More_ reason to hate him?! He tried to turn me into his dark puppet, and he sent someone to kill my parents!”

Ben turned to look at her, an unnerving intensity in his stare. “Me. Too. Except he succeeded with the _dark puppet_ part, and _I’m_ the one he sent after my parents.”

Rey hadn’t thought about it that way, and it seemed to extinguish her anger. She stared back into his unyielding glare, voice much softer now. “ _Why_ are we arguing?”

Ben‘s scowl faded. “No idea,” he sighed, laying back against the hillside, and motioning an invitation for her to return to his arms. She accepted without hesitation.

After a few seconds of silence, she heard some rather important words murmured into her hair.

“I love you.”

The way he said it was surprisingly unmomentous. No hesitance or nervousness. No high-flown declaration in his tone. Just _I love you._

That wasn’t to say that the words were flung at her casually either. It was just that he said them as if he’d been saying it to her for years. As if it were a simple but crucial truth he felt the need to remind her.

“I love you,” she replied. Somehow adding a _too_ seemed less emotionally risky, and if he was putting his heart on the line, then she would damn well do it, too.

His arms tightened around her slightly and he exhaled. He had been holding his breath. Maybe a little nervousness after all.

* * *

“The events of a few weeks ago smack of bias against both females and humans who don’t have near-white skin!” Ahsoka exclaimed.

Mace Windu stepped forward. “That’s for sure. Suddenly Poe Dameron is an ex-drug smuggler, Rose is sidelined to go _study,_ and both of the newer major players with dark skin are explicitly described as escaped slaves, and while both are compassionate, heroic, courageous, and given positions of power, they are shown to have an inexplicable lack of interest in doing anything but killing their former comrades who are still basically enslaved. Would have been much more inspiring, and frankly more emotionally logical, if they tried to lead others like them to freedom. But _no,_ the powerless just _had_ to remain powerless.”

Obi-Wan arched a brow. “Everyone knows that bias against non-humans is a problem, but do you really think there is bias against humans who don’t appear to be males with pale skin, in our galaxy?

Mace Windu crossed his arms. “The old Empire and the First Order obviously represent _the establishment,_ and how often do you see high-level officers who look like me as part of the main journey? Or women, for that matter.”

“Point taken,” Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. 

“Exactly!" Ahsoka declared. "And the more recent bias against strong women was obvious. Our heroine was previously shown to be perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and relying on her own talent and intelligence. And then, suddenly she’s reduced to a self-effacing, _unworthy_ , humble student whose decisions are often belittled, and who must be rescued by men multiple times. And after sacrificing everything, she is rewarded with nothing. No love and acclaim, like what most hero's get. She receives only loneliness and obscurity, and seems bafflingly _happy_ about it, almost as if the Force wanted to teach us that what girls want doesn't matter, and that we'd better keep smiling even when our hearts are broken.”

Master Yoda nodded. “The golden opportunity to inspire the marginalized and oppressed, the Force had. But steer clear of anything that upsets the cultural status quo, it did. Fucked up, that is!”

* * *

Rey and Ben lay like that for a long while. She wasn’t sure, but he may have actually dozed off for a few minutes, and eventually, the sort of romantic brain-fog seemed to dissipate somewhat. And she began to realize just how daringly they’d just behaved. What was to stop someone from randomly coming out here? Or Finn attempting to follow them?! Damn Dark Rey and her horniness! 

Rey cleared her throat. “Ben?”

“Hmm?”

“You do realize that your cock is still out?” 

He chuckled as he sat up, closing his trousers. “I guess you’re going to say we have to go back?”

She smiled. “At some point, yes.”

His eyes dipped down. “Shit,” he blurted, attempting to wipe away the creamy blob on her hip. That was only marginally effective. A large wet spot remained. “Sorry.”

She kissed him on the cheek, by way of accepting his apology. “I suppose people will probably notice, won’t they?”

Ben’s smile grew even more apologetic. “There’s also your hair…”

Rey reached up, examining it for herself. Sure enough, it was hopelessly messy, and entwined with several leaves. Two of the buns had fallen down completely, and her quick attempt at removing the leaves messed it up even further. She supposed that messed up hair, combined with a suspicious stain on her clothing wouldn't be conducive to their necessary _just allies_ narrative, as would be any insistence on bathing and changing as soon as she got back.

Rey’s formidable intellect turned to how best to explain away their sexy goings on. She could say her hair got messed up while they were running the course. Then again, her buns were famously resilient in that respect. Only being full-on tossed into water would usually mess them up this badly. 

Her eyes fell on the waterfall, in the distance.

“I have an idea,” she announced, immediately setting off in the direction of the waterfall. She’d been meaning to hike up there for months, but always felt too busy training. It would be nice to visit it for the first time with Ben, and while it wasn’t actually on the training course, Finn wouldn’t know that. She could just say she accidentally fell in. Her messed up hair would be explainable, and the jizz stain would be invisible. 

“Ah,” Ben said, as he followed, either understanding her plan, or wanting to look like he did.

The waterfall wasn’t at all far as the ship flies, but Rey quickly realized why such a beautiful place didn’t tend to have visitors. The journey was arduous, especially for such a short distance. As there was no path, it was necessary to scramble over the wet rocks that lay in the stream the falls fed into. And the mud. Mud everywhere. Both of their boots were absolutely covered in it, by the time they reached the small pool at the base of the falls. 

Rey grinned back at Ben as she perched atop a large rock, and lept in.

“COOOLD!” she yelped instantly. Dear maker the water was freezing. How could water on a warm, tropical planet get this damned cold?! “Coldcoldcoldcold!”

And Ben, still high and dry atop his own rock, was laughing his ass off at her. Quite possibly laughing harder than she’d ever heard before, and so sincerely, that she couldn’t help chuckling herself, uncomfortable as she was.

Well, there was only one thing to be done. A quick Force push, was all it took. He barely had a chance to let out a _hey_ of protest, before Ben hit the surface of the water with a large, and immensely satisfying splash.

"Cold!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Perry Downing for the edits and encouragement!
> 
> Next Time: Ben Solo, Hero of the Resistance


	7. Ben Solo, Hero of the Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Rey have a little chat about sexual matters, Rey gets a very creepy present from Babu, and Ben pulls out all the stops when it comes to impressing the Resistance.

Rey and Ben sat, side by side, wringing out their clothes.

“These boots are probably ruined,” he grumbled, as he stood. She took note of the slight smirk that remained on his face.

It occurred to Rey that his boots were the last bit of his old outfit that he still used. “If they survived the Death Star ruins, I think they’ll be fine,” Rey replied, standing as well. 

Ben’s eyes slowly slid down from her face, no doubt noticing the way her wet top clung in certain places. He cleared his throat awkwardly before speaking. “Um, I uh, was wondering…” A long pause. “When you might, um…”

She smiled, knowing what he meant. “Another two days should do it.”

There was that toothy, charming smile. “And then, maybe…”

“And then,  _ maybe _ ,” Rey agreed.

It was a minute or so before he spoke again. “Rey,” Ben began. “I feel like I should ask ahead of time… and I think I know the answer, but I don’t want to make assumptions… Would it be your  _ first _ ?”

“Yes,” she answered frankly. “And you?” She also had a feeling she knew…

Ben seemed strangely taken aback by the question, as if it didn’t occur to him that she might ask him back. It was some seconds before he answered, his eyes seeming to take a sudden interest in her boots. “Once.”

Rey felt her expectations shatter at that answer. His air of loneliness, and apparent cluelessness at how to behave around a pretty girl had always made her assume that Ben had to be a virgin. 

The question seemed to come out of its own accord. “Who was she?”

“New girl at the temple,” Ben muttered, still looking at her boots.

Even  _ more _ shattered expectations. She would have thought it was some heartless tryst of Kylo Ren, with some First Order floozie. But no. This was  _ Ben.  _ Ben had a schoolboy sweetheart. Could they have -

“No!” he said vehemently, seeming to hear her thoughts, as he often could when she was emotional. He finally raised his eyes to hers. “That’s not it, at all. It wasn’t  _ love _ . Not even close. It wasn’t even  _ lust _ . It was just… being curious and dumb and young.”

“How young?” she heard herself ask.

“Sixteen. Think she was a few years older.” He was back to muttering, but he maintained eye contact. “It only happened once, and was very… brief.”

So, it was quite a long time ago. That made her feel considerably better, somehow. It also suggested that this encounter hadn't been particularly enjoyable, or he might not have spent the last decade and a half in complete celibacy.

“What happened to her?” Rey honestly couldn’t have said why she was asking these questions. She didn’t want to know. But somehow, she needed to.

“Luke found out,” Ben said quickly. “Sent her away, but he was just  _ very disappointed with me." _

Rey’s thoughts began to whirl again. Could  _ that _ be why Ben hated Luke? Could that be why Ben fell to the Dark Side? Because of some lost love?!

“NO!” he actually shouted this time, apparently offended, and taking both her hands. “It had nothing to do with that. Shows what a shit teacher Luke was, but you already know why I turned on him, or rather, why I fought back when he turned on  _ me _ ,” he paused, taking a deep breath. “I guess I felt like shit because I didn’t get punished and she did. Luke said something about her showing herself to be  _ ill-suited to the life of a Jedi _ so immediately… If I was honest with myself, I was glad she left. Glad I wouldn’t have to see her again.”

That seemed to cast the incident in a whole new light, and Rey wasn’t exactly sure how you asked this sort of question, of a man. “Did she - pressure you?”

“No,” he answered immediately. But his look turned far away and thoughtful, as if he might be seeing the incident differently himself. “Maybe?” Another pause, and he shook his head. “I don’t know. That was  _ so _ long ago, Rey.” He stepped forward, giving one of his trademark intense looks, and seeming pitifully ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry.”

She found his almost neurotic guilt about it rather sweet, actually. And it couldn’t have been more obvious that he was now wishing he hadn’t yielded to this girl’s attentions. Wishing that Rey could have been his very first. More proof that Ben Solo was a hopeless romantic, at heart.

“Ben,” she whispered, pulling him close. “You have nothing to be sorry about. How could I be angry at you for someone you slept with years before you met me?  _ And _ when I was six years old.” 

He kissed her temple. “It doesn’t matter now.  _ You’re _ all that matters now.”

Rey smiled in response, and put her arms around him. Wet clothes met with a squishing sound, and he kissed her deeply. When he relinquished her lips, Rey rested her head against his chest, reveling in the snugness of his embrace. “We really should be getting back,” she said, at length. 

They began walking back towards the base, and Rey could feel his eyes resting brazenly on her damp, clingy tunic, and no doubt what was fairly visible beneath. 

Ben drew in a deep breath before speaking again. “Do you think we should maybe, um, go buy some, you know, contraceptives?”

“Not necessary. I’ve got two years left on a three-year injection.”

His brows shot up, but it only took a second or so for a dark cloud to pass across his features, as he did some rather jealous and slightly hypocritical math in his head. “You got a contraceptive injection  _ a year _ ago?” His tone was rigidly neutral. He was really trying to hold his feelings in check. Even so, the unspoken question was obvious.  _ Why did you get it? Or rather, for whom? _

Her instinct was to tell him to mind his own business, though some thought made her realize that she had no reason to be ashamed of it, now. That and she had more than a little curiosity as to how he’d react. “It got it while I was on my way to the Supremacy.”

Ben’s mouth dropped wide open, and she felt the need to explain further.

“We needed to refuel, so we made a quick stop at an outpost. I saw they had insta-injections, so I bought one.” She also bought makeup for the first time in her life, but he didn’t need to know that. “It seemed like a good idea.”

Ben blinked. “You stopped. To buy contraceptives. While you were on your way to redeem me?” he asked, seeming to be having a hard time wrapping his head around this notion.

Those internalized cultural messages about women not showing sexual initiative started to rear their ugly head, and embarrassment was beginning to overwhelm her. “I - well -,” she stammered. Rey then made a conscious effort to rally her feminist dignity. “ I  _ told you _ I wanted to  _ take your hand.” _

Ben was now grinning hugely, and she could practically see his head expanding to Death Star-like proportions. This sudden burst of cockiness seemed to make Ben’s resemblance to his father quite striking, for the moment. “Sounds like you wanted to take  _ something else _ of mine, too.”

“Shut up!” she giggled, smacking his arm playfully. “It’s not like I planned to jump into bed with you  _ immediately _ ! I just thought that maybe eventually… and it might be good to be prepared.”

He was still smiling broadly. “But you actually  _ wanted  _ me?”

“Yes."

“And you would have wanted to be with me, if I hadn’t -”

“Been an asshole-and-a-half, yes.”

He didn’t dispute her label of his behavior. 

* * *

They arrived back at the base to find surprisingly minimal glares from Finn, though he did feel the need to ask the obvious question. “Why are you all wet?”

“I tripped and fell in,” Rey said, adding a slight chortle, to make it sound like she thought it was ridiculous, too.

Finn’s eyes fell on Ben. “And you're wet  _ because -  _ ?”

“I laughed,” Ben answered, completely deadpan.

A rather remarkable thing happened then. Finn actually smirked and snorted at Ben’s wisecrack. For the first time, Rey dared to hope that these two might be more than grudging colleagues some day.

Finn resumed his training, and Ben and Rey headed toward the mess hall, for lunch. As they walked, Rey perceived a distinctive greeting, from a nearby hallway. “HEEEEYHAAAY!”

“Hello Babu,” Rey said, turning toward him. She saw that the Palpatine messenger droid was standing beside him. It had been modified though, it’s flowing red robes removed, to reveal the skinny, knobby, old-timey battle droid-like frame that held up the helmet-like head, with its projected Palpatine face. It looked decidedly weirder, but somehow slightly less creepy.

“MADE GRAMPA!” Babu announced. “GOOD GRAMPA FOR JEDI! PRESENT!” Babu then continued on in his own language, which the Palpatine droid dutifully interpreted, and in the slow, creaking tone of the dead emperor himself. “Master Frick wishes to present you with this gift, as a small token of his appreciation for saving the galaxy. He has observed that most Human cultures seem patriarchal in nature, and he had heard that you are an orphan. Therefore he reasoned that a droid resembling your sire’s sire would be an agreeable gift.”

Rey supposed Babu’s logic was sound, so far as it went.

The Palpatine droid continued. “He wishes to inform you that I have been reprogrammed, with all traces of Imperial or Sith loyalty removed. However, he found that my voice code and facial appearance were hardwired into my memory core. He has subsequently gifted me with a data-purged system program image taken from a droid you are familiar with, one Seethreepio. I have the same protocol and interpretation capabilities. Master Frick also added a personal attendant upgrade.”

Rey looked at the droid, and tried to imagine interacting with Palpatine’s face and voice every day. It didn’t strike her as a pleasant prospect. She tried to think of a way out. “Are you completely sure it has no hidden overrides for the Empire or First Order. I’m in a lot of sensitive meetings, and go on a lot of sensitive missions, so I’m not sure -”

Babu interrupted her, and was again interpreted by the Palpatine droid. “Master Frick assures you that I have passed Resistance screening protocols. He spent the entirety of last night making sure of this. He also points out that he is among the most skilled in his field, and begs you to consider that he  _ knows his business. _ ” Babu then attempted to speak Basic again. "GOOD GRAMPA! NIIIICE GRAMPAAA!" he declared, zooming up to pat the droid on the top of it's helmet-head, like a well-behaved pet.

Up all night to make this present for her… She felt completely unable to refuse. “Thank you, Babu,” Rey said, with all the politesse she could muster. “What is its number?”

Babu gestured to a fresh engraving on the droid’s breast plate.  _ OGG-3. _

“Ah, I guess I’ll call you  _ Ogee,”  _ Rey told the droid.

“Thank you, my lady.”

Rey tensed, and Babu went on his way. “Please do not call me  _ my lady.” _

“My programming indicates that this is an appropriate honorific for the granddaughter of an emperor.”

Rey reminded herself that this was a newly programmed droid, and with Threepio’s base operating system. New droids tended to be formal, literal and lacking in subtlety.

She looked around to make sure no one was listening, and even then spoke very quietly. “Ogee, I have renounced the Palpatine name. I am Rey Skywalker. And I do not wish you to ever tell anyone of my biological family.”

Palpatine’s face shot her a blandly curious look. “Is this a nuptial surname? If so, this is relevant information, as in some languages, honorifics change depending on marital status.”

“No.”

Palpatine’s projected face arched a brow. “To change one’s own appellation is not typical human behavior.”

“Is that so?!” Rey raised her voice. Something about having her choices questioned by Palpatine’s voice was incredibly galling, and she found herself responding almost as if she was speaking to her grandfather himself. “I chose it myself. I have  _ chosen _ to be a Skywalker. I suppose  _ you _ think it’s being disrespectful to my  _ sire's sire _ ?”

The droid stood silently a moment. “Utilizing holonet connection to answer query,” it said. Apparently it hadn't developed enough of a personality to answer questions on it's opinions, yet. “Data obtained suggest that Palpatine would likely approve of your decision to call yourself a Skywalker.”

“Because I was his enemy and hated everything he stood for?” Rey asked matter-of-factly. 

“No,” Ogee replied. “Because it is the type of thing he would have done himself.”

“What?!”

“Scans of periodicals rated as politically neutral consistently indicate that Palpatine was a master at hiding his true identity when expedient. And in your current environment, the Palpatine name is likely to inspire mistrust, while the Skywalker name is locally revered. Therefore, it seems likely that Palpatine would deem it a politically astute choice.”

“That’s not why I -!”

Ben’s hand moved up to her arm, squeezing her gently. “It’s just a droid. It’s newly programmed so -"

“I know!” she cut him off.

An awkward silence ensued, Ogee still standing before them. 

“Maybe you should give him a job to do,” Ben suggested.

Rey considered that, and recalled that the politicians for the new government were beginning to arrive. She didn’t doubt that the Resistance was in dire need of interpreters. “Ogee, please report to General Poe Dameron, explain that I sent you, and ask if there’s any interpreting to be done.”

“I doubt that will go over well,” Ben commented.

"Then that's their problem." Rey nodded to the droid, and it obeyed, shuffling down the hall. As she turned back to Ben, a disconcerting thought came to her. Her tone became considerably kinder. “I should have  _ asked you _ , before accepting the droid. I’m sorry.”

“Why?” he said surprisingly casually. “It’s fine with me.”

“Well, I mean, it looks and sounds like someone who abused you for your whole life…”

Ben actually shrugged. “But never as  _ himself.  _ Besides, who would  _ I  _ be to object to you letting a former puppet of evil into your life?”

Once again, Rey was struck by how well he was taking everything, considering all of the trauma he'd endured. Strangely, that just felt vaguely ominous, like there was another boot, waiting to drop.

* * *

The next day-and-a-half passed fairly uneventfully, with Rey training their padawan, Ben helping somewhat grudgingly, followed by several instances of making out in various dark corners. 

Finally, it was the big day. The day when Ben would prove himself by distracting the First Order remnants while the Resistance took them out.

As was the morning routine, Ben and Rey separated to bathe and dress, since a full night of cuddling allowed for a good long period of alone time. As Rey was having her morning shower, she made the very cheerful discovery that her menstruation had finally ceased. 

She decided then and there that tonight would be  _ the night _ , with Ben. They would go all the way. It was perfect really. By the end of the day, Ben would have gained Finn and Poe’s trust, thereby putting his redemption, and Rey’s judgement  _ about _ his redemption, beyond question. There would be no need to keep their feelings for each other a secret any more. Rey blissfully imagined kissing Ben in front of a whole assembled crowd, and them erupting into applause.

Guessing at what a woman was supposed to do when she had such big sexy plans, Rey scrubbed her nether regions a bit more carefully than usual, and was particularly liberal with the application of hair growth suppressant on her legs.

Once finished, she returned to their room and dressed, and heard a polite tapping at the door. Something told her it wasn’t Ben.

Ogee stood in the doorway. “Good morning, Miss Rey,” it said in the low, oozing voice of Palpatine himself. “I am here to inquire as to whether you require assistance with your toilette."

“My  _ what? _ ”

“As you know, I possess valet functions.” Palpatine’s voice made  _ valet functions  _ sound like a particularly horrific form of torture. “Would you like assistance with your hair or attire?”

Rey was just about to decline, when her decision from earlier came to mind. Tonight was the big night with Ben. Perhaps it would be nice to have her hair done fancily.

“Alright Ogee, you may do my hair.”

The droid motioned for her to sit. Your hair is very shiny,” it said, running its mechanical fingers through it. Palpatine’s voice made that sound especially creepy. "But we  _ must  _ do something about these split ends."

"Um, okay. Noted."

“What type of arrangement would you like?”  _ Arrangement  _ sounded like some euphemism for murder.

“Up, and out of the way,” Rey said, considering that the adventure with the First Order was likely to include some action. “But… sexy.” She added.

Ogee’s hands got right to work, claws whirring and clicking. Babu must have installed some new hardware, because she also felt the presence of hairspray and hot styling tools. She also couldn’t help reflecting on how, if she’d literally dreamt of Emperor Palpatine doing her hair, she would have awoken laughing at the absurdity of the idea.

“Finished, Mistress.”

Rey examined herself in a nearby mirror. The updo was a coiffure of artfully tousled layers, massed at the back of her neck, with a few silky tendrils framing her face. It looked nice, if she said so herself. Maybe she could get used to this?

* * *

She met up with Ben a few minutes later.

“What happened to your hair?” he asked moronically. He must have seen the look of wrath pass across her features, because he immediately corrected himself. “It looks really nice!” he added hastily.

Rey smiled in acknowledgement of the compliment. “C’mon,” she said, taking his hand, and heading toward the hangar. Poe was waiting for them.

“Remember, the plan is that  _ he _ goes in,” Poe said to Rey, “confuses the hell out of them by being alive, and once they’re thoroughly distracted, you send the signal, the fleet drops out of hyperspace, creates a blockade to protect Thyferra, and takes out the remaining Star Destroyers. Then we have a big-assed party.”

Rey nodded politely, as if this wasn’t the tenth time she’d been told. 

“Wait, how are they going to get onto the ship?” Finn asked.

“Oh, right.” Ben fumbled with his pocket, and pulled out a command medallion.

“Where’d you get  _ that?” _ Finn sounded almost impressed.

Ben shrugged. “It was in my pocket.”

Poe’s eyes narrowed. “Hey wait a minute. Rey, you said he died on Exegol and disappeared, right?”

Rey nodded. 

“And just kind of magically appeared on Tatooine?”

Rey nodded again.

“Then how the hell did his pants get from Exogul to Tatooine?”

Rey tensed. She really didn’t want to admit that she’d been secretly carrying his clothes around with her for a week, even if she would soon be able to come clean about their relationship. The fact that she’d taken his clothing was just the right combination of deeply personal and embarrassingly weird. The sensible lie would have been to say that she’d taken the medallion when he died and given it back to him, but she just couldn’t abide the idea of telling them that her soulmate died, and she immediately set to rummaging through his pockets.

Ben spared her from further explanation. “The Force is  _ weird, _ ” he said, shrugging again, and sounding decidedly like his father.

“Fleet is standing by,” someone announced over the hangar com. 

“Right,” Rey said stoutly, “time to be off.”

Finn approached, standing in front of Rey, and taking her free hand. Ben’s vibes crackled in irritation. Finn smiled warmly. “May the Force be with you." Finn took a step, clearly intending to walk away, but stopped abruptly in front of Ben. “And you too, I guess.”

Ben responded with a sarcastic half smile.

* * *

One side of the binders were securely around Rey’s right wrist, the other around Ben’s left. This seemed the best way to accommodate the life-force dependency under the circumstances.

“Let me do the talking,” he told her as he strode down the gangplank, and into the star destroyer’s hanger.

A young officer caught sight of him and did a double take. And then another double take. “Supreme Leader?”

“That’s my title; don’t wear it out,” Ben replied casually, walking right past him. 

The officer seemed frozen by shock for a moment, and then jogged to catch up with the elusive Ren. “But sir! We had been told -”

“That I defected and was killed?” Ben finished for him. “Obviously a lie. I’m here.”

The officer was joined by several troopers, and Rey watched, ready to fight off an attack. She could sense the fear radiating from each one. But they did nothing. Or rather they simply fell into line behind Ben. Had he mind-tricked them? No, she would have noticed that. It was probably just that not a one of them had the suicidal nerve to say or do anything. It struck her that this was going surprisingly smoothly.

And so Ben Solo strutted onto the bridge of the star destroyer, as if he still owned the place, his dream girl on one arm, and a defacto honor guard trailing behind them. 

More slack-jawed amazement. A few hands twitched toward side-arms, but once again, no one had the gaul to defy him. Ben acknowledged the stares with a slight, cocksure shrug. Several officers gave tremulous salutes. 

Just then, a loud, distressed-sounding voice echoed from the corridor. “Where is he?! I’ll believe it when I see it!” A vaguely familiar-looking man appeared in the doorway. He had a sickly, sallow pallor, and a huge, blinking life support belt strapped to his chest.

“General Hux,” Ben named the newcomer. “Aren’t you  _ supposed _ to be dead?”

“You’re one to talk,” Hux replied dryly, regaining his composure almost instantly. “I’m feeling much better, _thanks for asking_. I’m told that Pryde was too preoccupied with other matters to give orders on what was to be done with my corpse. The deck officers followed standard protocol for my rank, which was to resuscitate. I have no doubt that someone would have remembered to pull the power on me if things hadn’t all gone to hell immediately after, but here I am.”

“People like you have survived worse, I suppose.” Ben then got right to the point. “I think we have some matters to discuss.”

Hux didn’t answer. “I  _ had _ heard that you turned traitor.”

“You’re one to talk,” Ben countered, with a smug smirk. 

Hux’s eyes fell on Rey, still hand cuffed to Ben. “You  _ caught _ your scavenger, I see.” The ginger general gave a derisive snort. “Why the binders? Did you lose the key?”

_ Something of that nature,  _ Rey thought.

“You know how she is. It’s the only way to keep her from escaping.”

“ _ Righhhtt,” _ the general muttered skeptically.

The rival leaders, and the  _ prisoner _ entered the executive conference room. Rey had to scoot one of the chairs closer to Ben in order to accommodate the binders. Once again, Rey had the slightly disconcerting feeling that things were going a little  _ too _ well.

“Let’s get right to the point,” Ben began. “The First Order is screwed. Bombing Thyferra to cinders won’t change that. You’re  _ doomed.” _

“The  _ First Order _ is doomed,” Hux corrected, sounding remarkably unconcerned. “But I don’t doubt that the Resistance will pardon me, due to my actions on their behalf.”

“Possibly, but according to their policies, the only  _ sure _ way of getting that pardon is for you to  _ join _ them. Trust me, I just had this conversation the other day.”

Hux’s face scrunched into a sneer of disgust. “ _ Join _ them?”

Ben nodded. “You  _ have _ shown yourself amenable to aiding their cause.” He snorted, and leaned over to whisper to Rey, though loud enough for Hux to hear. "He probably thinks I didn't  _ know _ . That his treachery escaped the notice of a -" Ben's voice raised to a sarcastic holler, "literal  _ mind reader _ !"

Hux continued to glare. “I only did it because- “

“You hate me, I know,” Ben finished for him. “Joining the Resistance is the safest escape.”

“I think I might prefer execution.”

Ben placed his lightsaber on the table with a metallic thud. "I could arrange that."

“No you won’t,” Rey spoke up for the first time.

Hux’s brows shot up, but kept his focus on Ben. “Playing nice for your better half?”

“Something like that,” Ben replied.

There was a long silence.

“Fine,” Hux grumbled. 

“Then there’s the matter of your army.”

Hux looked confused, as if this was utterly someone else's problem. “What  _ about _ them?”

“They’ll defect as well.”

The general rolled his eyes. “Have you forgotten? My men are programmed from birth -”

“They’re not programmed to any particular ideology. They’re programmed to  _ obey.  _ We just told them to fight for the Final Order, the other day, and they obeyed. This shouldn’t be that different.”

Hux seemed to consider that. “That may be true, but the admiralty, or what’s left of the admiralty, will never consent.”

Ben grinned conspiratorially. “They will, if we package this transition the right way. We just need to make this sound like a victory.”

Hux gave yet another skeptical look.

Ben continued. “A good chunk of the propaganda still says that all we’ve ever  _ really _ wanted is for the New Republic to  _ listen _ to us. We can present this as them caving to our pressure. The war is over, and we  _ win. _ ”

“Do you  _ actually _ think anyone with a brain is going to swallow that?”

“Yes, I do. Because if they have a brain, they must also see that the First Order is doomed. People tend to be receptive to implausible bantha shit, so long as it sounds likely to save their skins.”

Rey listened, aghast and impressed. Maybe he did have some of his mother’s political acumen, after all.

“Oh, and one other thing, Hux” Ben added, pointedly fidgeting with his lightsaber. “You’ll be coming back with us, on our ship.”

Another sneer of disgust. “Why would I do  _ that _ ?” 

“Because I know you’re currently planning to have us shot down as we leave.”

* * *

A half hour later, Ben and Rey stepped off their ship, heads held high in triumph. Hux was told to wait onboard until his presence could be explained. 

Finn, Poe and several other higher-ups were waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp, with a small crowd of other onlookers toward the back of the hangar. She noticed Ogee standing off to the side.

“What the hell!?” Poe demanded furiously. “You never sent the signal to attack!”

“No, we didn’t,” Ben replied. 

“You were ordered -”

Apparently arrogant with victory, Ben interrupted General Dameron. “No, I talked them  _ all _ into defecting. All personnel will be transferred to the surface, unarmed, and ready to receive orders. Incidentally, they think they’re joining the  _ New Republic _ , so you might want to start painting over signs now. You just gained 57,000 troops and support staff. The transports start landing at 0600. I  _ was _ going to have them run the capitol ships aground but -” Ben paused, looking fondly at Rey, “this scavenger pointed out that they are perfectly functional, even if they  _ are _ shaped  _ like big, evil triangles _ . You now have four resurgent-class star destroyers. ”

A silence took hold of the room. Rey decided that they were dumfounded with admiration. They had to be. She watched Poe expectantly, excited to hear his response. 

But it wasn’t grudging praise that General Poe Dameron gave. “Get out.”

“What?!” Rey and Ben said, in perfect unison.

“Get out. Off my base,” Poe reiterated, glaring sternly at Ben. “And don’t show your face around here -”

“Poe!” Rey exclaimed, interrupting him. “He just won the war and increased our resources without a drop of blood spilled!”

Poe took a step forward, his voice lowered, as if trying to talk a hysterical friend out of doing something stupid. “Rey, can’t you see what he’s done? With these defections, men loyal to him will outnumber  _ us _ -” he gestured expansively to the assembled crowd, “ten to one! He just effectively took back the First Order,  _ and _ took over the Resistance in one fell swoop!”

Ben put a finger thoughtfully to his chin, as if impressed by someone else’s idea. “Sounds pretty damn cunning, when you put it that way.”

“Ben?” She instinctively knew that he hadn't betrayed her, but still felt a strong need to hear what he had to say for himself.

He must have heard the hurt in her voice, and stepped in front of Poe, taking Rey’s other hand. “Don’t listen to him,” he said. He was smiling at first, as if the idea of him turning his cloak again was laughably ridiculous. But the smile quickly faded, and he became far more serious. Almost pleading. “I just  _ helped _ the Resistance! I don’t want to take it over! And I just saved thousands of lives! Lives that  _ your _ friends would have happily blown up!” He turned a fierce glower on Poe. “That’s what  _ you _ would have preferred isn’t it? Much more  _ straightforward _ !”

She no longer had even the faintest doubt that Ben was telling the truth.

“GET OUT!” Poe bellowed. “I don’t want to see you anywhere near this planet, or any Resistance base again! Got it?!”

Rey noticed Rose saying something quietly to Finn. “Wait, what’s Poe talking about?”

Finn whispered something back, which Rose duly blurted out far too loudly. “Leia's son is Kylo Ren?!”

Rey wasn’t even angry at Rose. Something  _ that _ shocking kind of begged to be incredulously hollered at the whole room. Besides, it was Poe's fault, really. Rey felt tears of frustration building at the corners of her eyes.

The small crowd of people, both Resistance fighters and some of the newly-arrived politicians, immediately set to talking among themselves. “Ben, is that true?” One of them asked loudly. Rey recognized him as that former senator who had ruined Leia’s career, and apologized so profusely to Ben the other day. She noticed that the ex-senator didn’t look all that upset. Or even especially surprised. His eyes were slightly narrowed, and he had what struck her as a conniving smirk.

Ben looked at Rey, and gave the slightest nod of his head, as if to say he didn’t see any way around it. “I  _ was _ Kylo Ren.”

Rey was waiting for him to say more. To remind them that he was instrumental in their victory on Exegol, and had died to save the Last Jedi's life. But he stopped there, probably because the talk among the crowd was so loud, nothing he said at this point would have been heard anyway. She could sense something both calculating and resigned in his vibes, like a general considering a strategic retreat. Like his mother.

“He’s  _ gotta _ be trying to take over,” Poe said, toward Finn and Rose. For a moment, Rey noted a very slight note of doubt there, and her heart swelled with sudden hope. 

That was, until a voice sounded from behind them. “That’s exactly what he’s doing!” Hux shouted, hobbling down the ramp. “He’s trying to take over both sides; he told me all about it!  _ I  _ proposed an  _ actual _ alliance and armist-”

“You damned LIAR!” Rey literally screamed, her voice cracking with outrage. “Take that back!”

She waited for an even more violent outburst from Ben, but to her surprise, he squeezed her hand, and spoke in a whisper. “He won’t. Not when there’s an opportunity for him to benefit and to fuck  _ me _ over at the same time.”

“Out,” Poe repeated.

Rey touched her chest. “But what about  _ me _ ?” she demanded desperately. Surely, they wouldn’t send the Last Jedi, and de facto mascot of the Resistance into exile as well? “You know that if  _ he _ goes,  _ I  _ go. I can’t let him die!”

Poe pursed his lips for a moment, and then spoke with what sounded like genuine regret in his tone. “That’s  _ your _ choice.”

Rey turned to the other general. “Finn?” Her voice cracked again.

Finn averted his gaze, and was silent for a long moment. Rey suspected he was considering whether she could be pursuaded to just let Ben literally fuck off and die, but Finn apparently thought the better of it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t see what else we can do.”

Rey burst into hysterical sobs. 

Again. 

Her family was abandoning her again.

Ben put an arm over her shoulder, nudging her up the ramp, and back onto the Falcon. Ogee followed behind them.

As the ramp closed, Rey could just make out Poe’s continued whining. “And what the hell am I supposed to do with 57,000 men? 57,000 mouths to feed! 57,000 bodies to equip! At least the rest of the politicians will be here tomorrow. They’ll have to figure out a way to clean up this kriffing...”

* * *

“Wait a moment,” Obi-Wan interjected. “Ahsoka, you keep alluding to Rey ending up  _ alone _ as if it’s a bad thing, and yet also advocating for more female empowerment in these events.”

Ahsoka didn’t deny it.

“But Rey ending up on her own  _ is _ empowering is it not? A declaration that she does not need a male in order to be happy.”

Anakin stepped forward, arms crossed. “Obi-Wan, are you  _ mansplaining  _ that a strong woman doesn’t require a romance - to  _ Ahsoka _ ?”

"Alright, alright, that's enough feminist rhetoric from you,  _ wife-choaker, _ " Ahsoka told Anakin flatly, and turned back to Obi-Wan. “Women don’t absolutely require a mate in order to be happy. I of all women know that. But I am  _ not _ all women. Rey is her own person, and if one thing is clear about her personality, it’s that she puts a very high value on companionship and having a family, ideally a biological one. She also has a pretty obvious romantic and/or sexual interest in men, and Ben in particular.”

“ _ Obvious?” _ Obi-Wan replied incredulously. “How is her romantic interest in Kylo Ren  _ obvious?”  _ He turned to Luminara Unduli. “Did that seem obvious to  _ you? _ ”

“It did seem pretty likely.”

Obi-Wan frowned, and turned to Mace Windu. “Did you think so?”

“I didn’t see much evidence of it,” Mace said. “Even that kiss seemed more  _ grateful _ than sexual.”

Ahsoka groaned. “Oh  _ yes _ , I know that when someone  _ I _ have no sexual feelings for saves  _ my _ life, I  _ always _ look soulfully into their eyes, tenderly touch their face, and lingeringly kiss them on the mouth. Don’t you?”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to the magnificent Perry Downing!
> 
> Next time:   
> The Rise of Skywalker 2: The Search for More Money


	8. Rise of Skywalker 2: The Search for More Money, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben comes up with a plan to patch things up with the Resistance. Then smut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap, since it’s been so long since I last posted:
> 
> Ben depends on Rey’s touch in order for her life force to keep him alive. Last time, Ben tried to impress the Resistance enough to earn their trust, but he just ended up getting himself kicked out, and Rey along with him.
> 
> Oh and I know the Falcon probably doesn't have a shower. This feature was added for purely pornographic purposes.

Even though things had gone terribly, Ben still felt proud of himself. Only now, he wasn’t proud of ending a war and saving thousands of lives. He was proud of himself for _not_ crushing Poe Dameron’s trachea where he stood. 

Ben was rather pleased with himself for exercising enough self-control to avoid the impulse to murder anyone who made Rey cry like that…. Though in reality, Ben was the one who had insisted on showing off and playing the hero. He supposed he knew his stunt with the First Order was likely to step on some Resistance toes, and he probably should have anticipated that they would look at anything he did through a lens of deep mistrust.

He’d wanted to impress the Resistance enough to make Rey comfortable with being public about their relationship. And all he’d done was make things ten times worse.

Story of his damn life. Trying and failing. Wanting to help and just making things worse.

But no. He couldn’t surrender to despair. Not now. Not when Rey needed him to be strong.

Rey had spent the rest of the evening sobbing in his arms. Sobbing and sobbing until his tunic was soaked with tears and snot. She didn’t have to explain why she was so upset. Basically getting defacto kicked out of the Resistance, with barely a word of regret from her so-called friends…. Ben knew that this tapped in to her deep-rooted abandonment issues.

Eventually, she’d cried herself to sleep, while Ben lay awake, pondering what had happened. 

It occurred to him that there was a time not too long ago, when he would have relished an outcome like this. Turning Rey against the Resistance, and putting her in a position where he was the only one she could turn to. Kylo Ren, with all his desperation for love and power, and dark whispers echoing in his head, would have just _loved_ that.

It was that recollection that made up Ben’s mind. No matter what it took, he was going to fix this for her. He would get Rey back into the Resistance, or he would die trying.

Possibly quite literally. That was the most straightforward way to get her back to the Resistance. He could just... die. Then she wouldn’t be obligated to keep him alive, and he supposed he could think of worse fates, to die for Rey’s happiness… But that option, while it might have appealed at other darker times in his life, did not seem acceptable now. Not in a galaxy where Rey said she loved him. Not when some kind of lasting happiness seemed to actually be possible. Though he supposed he might not have to die permanently. He could always die, spend a few weeks in that strange netherworld, and come back when Dameron had cooled off or had some sense talked into him. But Luke had been evasive about the possibility of coming back to life again. What was Luke hiding? Now that Ben thought about it, was true permanent death even possible, within a dyad?

Either way, dying could be a last resort. He needed to figure out some other solution. 

The root problem was the Resistance not trusting him. He'd tried to fix that by swooping in with a grand, cocky display of heroism, with no thought of possible complications. Just like his father would have. 

Maybe it was time to try solving the problem the way his mother would have. Diplomatically. And with an actual well-thought out plan that was a bit less likely to piss people off...

* * *

It was past 0900, and Rey was still asleep in his arms, tears turning to salt on her cheeks. 

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Ben murmured, stoking her hair.

Her eyes opened, and she smiled at the sight of him. But the smile faded quickly, as she apparently recalled the events of the previous day.

“I figured out how to fix this,” he told her quickly. “How to get you - us - back into the Resistance’s _good_ data file.”

Rey sighed deeply. “Ben, you gave them intel, peace, an army and fleet, and they sent you into exile for it,” she grimaced, and he could see the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. “I don’t think there’s _anything_ -”

Ben interrupted her. “What does the Resistance need _more_ than a fleet and an army?”

Rey frowned in thought. “I don’t know… More allies? Better equipment? Infrastructure for the new government?”

Ben shook his head. “No, they need _money_ to buy those things.”

His clever Rey immediately got it. “You have money?”

He grinned. “A lot of people don’t know that Snoke wasn’t in charge because he was a tactician or charismatic. He was the money. He _controlled_ the money. And when he was killed, that control passed to me.”

There was a spark of hope in Rey’s eyes, and the subtlest beginnings of a smile. “You have the First Order’s money?”

“Sort-of. I have control over it. Lower-ranking officers have control over the money in their budgets. I wish it had occurred to me sooner, but I’d bet you anything that all of them are scrambling to embezzle it away into private accounts as we speak, but there _should_ still be a good amount of money, and only _I_ have the ability to do something like, say, transfer _all_ of it to the accounts that fund the Resistance.”

Rey shook her head, smile fading. “Ben, considering how they reacted when you gave them a fleet and an army - I don’t imagine this will be any better.”

His grin widened. “But that’s the thing. The Resistance was upset because they thought the First Order’s people would be loyal to _me_ .” Ben conceded within himself that this was a reasonable concern. “But _money_ doesn’t work like that. Money has no _loyalties_. It does whatever it’s told. If I give them that money, surrender all control over it -”

“It might function as proof that you’ve relinquished your First Order ambitions!” She was smiling. Actually smiling. 

The plan wasn’t perfect. Ben knew that. There were possible complications, but it was the best he could come up with. 

“What do we need to do? How do we get the money?”

“Banking Clan, on Scipio, but there’s something we’ll need to do first.”

“And what’s that?” she asked eagerly.

This part Ben _had_ thought out from a political angle - what would his mother do? “If we go back and promise to give the Resistance the money, they’ll interpret that as a bribe, and get pissed. They’ll bitch and moan that I’m trying to _buy_ the Resistance. What I need to do is give them the money outright ahead of time, no-beams attached. If I’m going to do that, I’ll need to know where to put the money, but the Resistance is notorious for hiding their finances.”

“Can’t we just pick up the money and bring it to the base?”

Ben shook his head. “That kind of cash would take a whole fleet to transport it, not to mention that just withdrawing those sort of amounts… the Banking Clan won’t like it. It would hurt their bottom line, and possibly mess up the galactic economy.” He paused. “But if we move it into the shady investment funds and shell corporations that fund the Resistance, things will probably go more smoothly.”

“But how do we get the Resistance’s financial information? They’re not going to just give it to us. Not now…”

Ben drew in a deep breath. “It was actually one of my main objectives as Supreme Leader.”

The look on Rey’s face reminded him of something out of a holo-comedy. The sort of look a wife gets when she asks her husband… “What did you _do_?”

Another deep breath. “I set my best slicers at finding out how the Resistance was funded. I knew damn well that my mother probably financed it herself, at least at first, so I had them -”

“You had your people slice into your _mother’s_ account?!”

Ben’s voice raised to match her outrage. “Taking away the Resistance’s funding was the only way I could think of to end the war without killing her!” he shouted. “OR YOU!”

Rey sighed. “Oh. Well I guess - that’s not so bad.”

“Right,” he snapped. “By the time my slicers got the information, Palpatine was back on the scene, and I didn’t want to risk any big moves in that direction. But the information should still be there.”

“Is it in your intel account?”

“No. I hid it better than that. Didn’t want anyone using it without my say-so. It’s on a closed system that can only be accessed from a private command terminal.”

Rey nodded. “The kind that would only be in a high command suite?”

Ben smirked at her knowledgeability about the layout of Star Destroyers.

Rey ground. “But all the capital ships were just turned over to the Resistance. Do you think we could sneak -”

“Won’t have to. There’s one Star Destroyer that the Resistance doesn’t have it’s hands on.”

Rey gave him what seemed like an only half-sarcastic suspicious glare.

“We’re going to the Supremacy.”

* * *

Within minutes, they’d set course for the Crait System. The two of them immediately set about planning their excursion.

“Power on the Supremacy will be dead by now,” Ben pointed out.

“Probably not, actually,” Rey explained. “Certain areas, like the bridge, officer’s quarters, high-profile infrastructure, they tend to be on a separate power system, and the charge can last for years. I’ve had the electrical burns to prove it.” Ben flinched, hating the thought of Rey, probably no more than a child, forced to do such dangerous work. Rey continued. “There will probably still be some heat, O2 and grav in the Throne Room."

“Either way, we should dig out the environment suits. Even if there is life support in the Throne Room, there probably won’t be in the hangar next to it.”

Rey’s face lit up. “A space walk! I’ve never had an excuse to be in zero grav. Have you?”

Ben’s eyes dropped to the floor. “My dad used to turn off the grav, as a treat.” He recalled one afternoon quite well, when Mom had caught him and Dad racing blobs of spit across the main cabin. _Boys,_ she had muttered. 

The next several minutes were spent digging out the environment suits. Needless to say, Dad’s old suit fit Ben pretty well, but they had more trouble with Rey. Mom’s old suit was too petite, and Chewie’s was unmanageably baggy. However, they’d managed to find another suit at the back of the storage compartment. An expandable children’s suit, clearly bought for a growing boy. They were able to adjust it to fit Rey.

As they worked on adjusting Rey’s environment suit, a small beeping sounded from the vicinity of her pocket. She hastily picked it up. “It’s from Finn!” she announced.

Ben felt his lip twitch toward a sneer, but he did his best to repress it.

Rey’s eyes passed back and forth across the screen. “He says that he’s sorry and he’s trying to talk some sense into Poe!” she read happily. Her smile faltered after a moment. “He also says that First Order general is still talking trash about you.”

Ben wasn’t at all surprised. “I’m sure Hux’s telling them that I eat babies for breakfast and take my caf with orphan’s tears.” 

Strangely, Ben found that he wasn’t really angry at Hux for what he’d done yesterday. Being angry at Hux for being a deceitful, self-serving prick was like being angry at a bantha for shitting in the desert. Though, now that Ben thought about it, that was a potential problem they’d have to face. Getting the money for the Resistance wasn’t likely to shut Hux up, especially since Hux was probably one of the officers frantically trying to funnel as much of that money away as possible.

But that couldn’t be helped could it? There was literally nothing Ben could think of that might even slightly soften Hux’s hatred. Ben imagined himself carrying Hux out of a burning cruiser, and not getting so much as a shrug of sincere gratitude from him. 

It wasn’t long before the Supremacy appeared on their scopes.

“Such a _waste_ ,” Rey groaned, as they neared the hulking ship. 

Ben couldn’t help getting a bit defensive again. “We evacuated all the survivors.”

“Not just that.” She gestured expansively at the ship. “All of this. The tech, the engineering, all the work and resources that went into it. I know it’ll obviously never be space-worthy again, but it’s such a shame to see it all go to waste.”

“So how many _portions_ is she worth?” Ben asked, completely deadpan. 

Rey glared, and smacked him on the back of the head, and the two of them laughed together for several seconds.

Just then something seemed to light up on the main scope. “A life form!” Rey announced.

Ben frowned. “That’s impossible. I had them go over the whole ship -”

“Look!” Rey insisted. Sure enough, there was a blip on the life-form scope. “Do you know what part of the ship that is?”

Ben examined the display more carefully. “That’s the research sector,” he said with dismay.

“We have to go help them!” Rey declared.

Ben knew that Rey was probably imagining some poor, lonely stormtrooper, in need of rescue. Ben’s mind was somewhere very different… The research sector - anything there would have been done under Snoke’s instruction. Who knew what fucked up biological weapon shit was being cooked up in there? And it made sense that if they had one of those long-lasting power systems anywhere, it might be in the sector where they did weapon’s research. 

This led Ben to agree with Rey. Overlooked survivor or semi-sentient bio-monster, they should check it out. “We don’t have a ton of time, Rey,” he pointed out. The most logical thing would be for them to split up, but Ben needed to be present to unlock the data system, and he sure as hell wasn’t sending Rey to go investigate something that dangerous, by herself. 

An idea came to him. “Ogee!” he shouted. The creepy droid shuffled out from the shadows.

Rey caught on, and asked the question for him. “Ogee, can you function in open space?”

“Yes mistress,” it said in that eerie Palpatine croak. “I am equipped with microthrusters, allowing for some basic propulsion in open space.”

Ben was about to rhetorically ask why the hell a messenger droid would be equipped with a feature like that. He was going to ask, but then remembered that this thing was supposed to represent Palpatine. Ben could well imagine how unnerving it would be for an Imperial officer to suddenly find a likeness of Palpatine on his ship, unannounced. 

“Most impressive,” Ben commented instead. “Alright, time is probably money here, so let’s get moving.”

* * *

After dropping Ogee off closer to the research sector, Ben and Rey landed in the remains of Snoke’s personal hangar. Ben carried a large charge box under one arm. It only then occurred to him that life-force transfer probably wouldn’t work though the thick, insulated gloves of the environment suits. He grinned to himself at the realization that they’d have to have some real cuddle time when they got back.

The sensation of weightlessness was as nostalgic as he expected, but he immediately activated the gravity boosters in the feet, pushing the charge box lightly in front of him. He was not at all surprised to see that Rey had elected to kick off the hull of the Falcon, and sent herself sailing through the air, letting out an adorable _whoop_ of enjoyment. It made him laugh, though not because he found it funny. It was the sort of laugh you have when something is just _too_ delightful.

They reached the hangar door, Rey activated her grav boots, and deftly hooked the charge box up to it. The door immediately opened, and the two of them trudged through the vacuum. The door shut behind them, and the heavy feeling of gravity returned.

Rey looked around. The room was much as they both left it, though with the bodies removed. Her gaze moved up toward the the large window, with its view to open space, Crait looming large on one horizon, and little bits of wreckage glittering in it’s reflected light.

Ben approached the main console, and set about the work of downloading the information he needed. Fortunately everything seemed to still be in good working order.

Meanwhile, Rey took to wandering around the room. After a minute or two, Ben heard her com beep. “Ogee, what did you find?”

Palpatine’s voice emanated from the comlink. “It appears to be a small mammal.”

“Dangerous?” Ben called back over his shoulder.

“It does not appear to be dangerous. On the contrary, it appears pleased by my presence.”

Ben thought a moment. “Ogee, can that genetic scanner of yours detect cloning or genetic manipulation?”

“It can. I detect that this creature is an unaltered product of natural reproduction.”

Ben allowed himself a slight sigh of relief.

“It’s amazing that the thing didn’t starve,” Rey commented.

The droid actually had an answer for that. “I noticed that there seems to be a protein recycling plant located next to the laboratory.”

“Oh. Well, we can’t just leave it. Eventually the residual power will run out, and the poor thing will freeze.” Rey paused. “Ogee, please bring the mammal back to the Falcon…”

That was around the moment that Ben finished getting through all the layers of security, and his focus remained more solidly on the task at hand.

* * *

Ben and Rey arrived back at the Falcon. Ben pulled off his helmet and gloves. Rey followed suit, and as soon as she had the helmet off, gave him a quick squeeze. He could almost feel the warmth of her life-force flowing into him. Yes, they’d definitely need some cuddle time, soon. “I’ll set course for Scipio,” he announced, fully intending to pull her into his arms the second he was finished.

While working in the cockpit, he overheard Rey’s comlink sound, and the Palpatine droid’s voice crackled through. “Mistress, I request permission to come aboard.”

Ben finished up setting the nav, and returned to the main cabin, to make sure that Ogee was back aboard. As he approached he heard Rey burst into laughter, and it only took him a moment to figure out why.

The droid, with its clear, empty-helmet-like head, had actually used it’s own head to transport the creature. The small mammal was crammed into the droid’s head, and sat there, placidly licking itself.

Ogee immediately removed the top of his own head, and the creature jumped down into his arms. It nuzzled its face against Ogee’s arm, as if seeking to hide in his elbow joint. It was small and furry, with an orange striped coat, and large pointed ears. 

Rey approached the small animal, smiling and reaching out a hand. To her dismay, the creature bared its teeth and hissed at her.

Ben and Rey spent the next hour or so canoodling and chatting the game table, while Rey made periodic overtures of friendship toward the animal. It wanted nothing to do with her, and Ben quickly found out that it wanted even less to do with him. When he attempted to stroke it, it actually attempted to scratch him with its claws.

Not so with Ogee. The droid sat on a nearby crate, and the creature jumped into his lap, and made an odd, low, almost mechanical sound as it nuzzled against him. The droid dutifully stroked the creature.

* * *

“Besides,” Luminara continued, “like it or not, the scenario we got last week disregarded established romantic themes. Ben Solo and Rey were _explicitly_ portrayed as _literal_ soulmates. There are only two logical directions for that narrative to go.”

Master Yoda took up the explanation. “If soulmates they are, live happily they will in the end, or die they _both_ must by narrative’s end. Separation - frustrating it is. Unsatisfying.”

“Who ever said that the Force has to be _satisfying?”_ Mace Windu inquired.

Yoda shook his head. “Understand, you do not. The Force works in mysterious ways, yes, but patterns it has. Concepts that _work_ , repeated they are.” Yoda gave a deep, weary sigh. “Live together or die together soulmates must, in the end. Known for millennia this has been, but broke this pattern, the Force did.” 

* * *

“So the place we’re headed - it’s pretty, um, _upscale,”_ Ben informed Rey. He honestly wasn’t sure if Rey had ever been in an environment like that, and wanted her to be prepared.

She must have sensed his slight misgiving. “What, you don’t think I know how to be _fancy_?”

Ben didn’t answer that.

Rey groaned. “Well, you’re probably right. I don’t suppose we have time to go pick up new clothes?”

Ben shook his head.

“Well, I suppose we should at least get cleaned up,” she sighed. “Wait a second. We haven’t bathed today.”

She was right. They’d both been too preoccupied with the plan to board the Supremacy.

Ben realized a potential problem. “Because of the space-walk, I don’t think I’ve got a whole lot of _charge._ I’m not sure we can separate to bathe, like we do most mornings.”

Rey nodded. She seemed to get a far-away look for several seconds, before she made eye contact again. “We could do it _together_.”

Ben felt his fingers twitch against her hand, as he wondered if she worded it that way on purpose. He drew in a deep breath. “We could.”

Before he knew it, he was being led toward the other end of the ship. To his surprise, it was the old water-based station, a luxury leftover from Lando’s time. Ben could recall his parent’s bickering about it. Mom saying they should get it running again, and Dad protesting that sonics were just as good, and the old shower thing was expensive and wasteful and a pain to refill. The thing was so disused that Ben recalled the space being used as a sort of closet. Sure enough, Rey had cleared it out and had it looking cleaner than practically anywhere else on the ship. He could almost hear Mom saying _all it needed was a woman’s touch._

“You got that old thing working?”

Rey grinned. “The thing has to be refilled after every use. A bit of a pain, but what can I say, bathing in water is a luxury I rather enjoy.”

With that, Rey began undoing her belt, and pulling off her long gauze wrapper. Ben’s heart was pounding against his ribcage. Rey was taking off her clothes. Suddenly the full gravity of the situation was dawning on him. He was going to be naked, with Rey, standing in that tiny space… Certain parts of his body were already responding to the mere idea.

Could this be the big moment? It might be. Making love to her in his parents’ bed seemed weird, but here - not so much. 

But on second thought, no. He couldn’t. Somehow it seemed wrong to take her precious virginity, so immediately after making such a mess of her life. Ben Solo made a promise within himself. He would NOT take her. Not until he’d fixed things between her and the Resistance. Not until he had, if not proven himself worthy of her, at least proven himself a little less unworthy.

Not a second after making that silent vow, Rey’s pants and top came off, leaving her clad only in undergarments. Ben heard himself let out a quavering sigh. He was fairly certain he’d never seen anything more beautiful. The skin of her naked shoulders, her collarbone rising and falling with each breath, and the impressive contours of her subtly defined muscles. Perfection. A vision of loveliness no poet could capture.

She stood expectantly for a moment, and he realized that he had not started undressing himself. He quickly obliged, and with no particular insecurity either. She’d seen him naked before. And on some level, Ben was aware that while there was plenty wrong with him, there was nothing _at all_ wrong with his physique. Rey’s eyes gave him an appreciative once over, her eyes lingering on his burgeoning erection.

With that, Rey seemed to wrap her arms around herself in a sort of embrace as she unfastened her support garment, lovely hazel eyes still locked on Ben’s, rosy lips parted. And her support garment came off.

BOOBS!

Ben’s mind went almost completely blank except for that one concept. _BOOOOBS_ . It sounded like a claxon in his head. BOOOBS! No more thoughts of poetry. His whole mind, heart and spirit seized by the two glorious mounds of flesh on Rey’s chest. Beautiful, splendid, stunning _BOOOOOOBS_!

Rey reached up, taking his hand, still resting lightly on her shoulder, and slowly guiding it down to cup over one of her perfect breasts.

 _OHDEARFORCEBOOBSBOOBSBOOOOOBSBOOBSBOOOOBS_!

With no more conscious thought than that, his other hand reached up to join it’s fellow on her other breast, and he watched with complete rapt fascination at the sight of his own clumsy, pale fingers caress the breasts of the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. He could only eventually tear his eyes away to rest back on her lovely face, finding her eyes lulled in pleasure at his touch.

“We _should_ actually bathe,” Rey pointed out breathlessly.

Ben nodded. She stepped into the shower, meeting his eyes with a beckoning bat of her lashes. As he stepped in, he reminded himself of his promise. He would not take her now. Definitely not. No matter how incredibly beautiful she was. Not going to do it. Nope. Not going to. 

He slid into the tiny room with her, and kept his hands stuck fast on her shoulders as the water started, a pleasant, warm rain from above.

“I need the soap,” she murmured, reaching around him, her glistening perfect breasts pressing against his chest, his achingly hard cock sandwiched between their two bodies. He sensed that she was not actually retrieving the soap. Her hand was now resting in the center of his back, and she was looking up at him. He could sense her intentions through the Force, if they weren’t obvious enough from her actions. She wasn’t quite _giving_ herself to him, but she was _offering._ What an incredible thrill to know she wanted him so much.

 _I know what I have to do_ , Ben thought to himself. He slowly allowed one of his hands to creep down, across the flat valley between her breasts, past the taut dip of her navel, all the while studiously watching her face for any sign of disapproval. On the contrary, she was giving him the wickedest little smile.

Finally, he allowed his fingers to comb through the downy hair, and with the lightest of pressure, allowed one finger to slip into the mysterious crevice between her lips. He had a vague, theoretical idea of what he was doing here. Strangely enough, he had looked into this. 

There was a period in his life when he had shunned all thoughts of sex. Part of that was self-hatred, and part was because he knew that Snoke and his supposed grandfather were in his head. No one wants to jack off in front of their grandfather and creepy boss.

But more recently, after Snoke was dead and the voices seemed to go temporarily quiet, and he supposed not coincidentally after he’d met Rey, he’d taken some intellectual interest in sex. That first underwhelming teenaged experience all those years ago had taught him only that he knew nothing about how one did this correctly. So he set about learning.

Even so, looking at some diagrams and naughty vids on the holonet was not the same as _doing_. Ben drew in a breath. He needed to focus, and the increasingly urgent throb of his cock was not making that easy. Focus. He needed to focus.

He allowed his finger to explore. Despite a raging curiosity, he chose not to slip fully inside. He would not enter that sacred space now. Instead, he got straight to work finding the apparently all-important nub of her pleasure. 

There. Was that it? That might be it?

“Ben…” she sighed.

Yes. Okay, step one accomplished. He gave a little pressure, and somehow, even without her pleasured hum, he would have known he was onto something. Kriff this was enjoyable. Like _really_ enjoyable. The ache of his cock was transforming into some unknown phantom bliss. Conscious thought went exceedingly fuzzy, fading into an all-consuming imperative to satisfy his lover, experimenting with different strokes and pressures. At one point, she intervened, guiding his hand briefly, and oh yes, there it was. Yes, this. _This._

“Ben…Yes...” she sighed against his shoulder. She was close. This was _awesome!_

His thoughts had gone so primitive and instinctual, that he didn’t realize until the moment was upon him. Rey let out a long, spine-tingling feminine grunt, and only then did he consciously become aware of his own orgasm, a shockwave of pleasure and explosion of seed against her stomach. That shared life-force worked both ways apparently. 

They stood like that for a long moment, holding each other. She was running her fingers through his damp hair. He was still reveling in the sensation of her naked body against his.

It was Rey who eventually spoke, and with a startling note of distress. “Oh the water is probably going to run out any second!”

With that, the rest of his brain snapped back on. They both rushed to soap up, but there was really only enough time to wash off bodily juices.

Well, at least they were _slightly_ cleaner than when they started.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Rise of Skywalker 2: The Search for More Money, Part Two.
> 
> And another huge thank you to the amazing Perry Downing!


	9. Rise of Skywalker 2: The Search for More Money, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben pay a visit to the banking clan, where Rey will have to finally face her own heritage. The Force ghosts continue debating why TRoS sucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap, since it's been so long since I last posted:  
> Ben has been resurrected, but is dependent on Rey's life-force to stay alive. After attempting to gain the acceptance of the Resistance, Rey and Ben have been kicked out, and have come up with a plan to prove Ben's loyalty by giving the Resistance all of the First Order's money.

Ben and Rey stepped off the Falcon, and onto the Banking Clan’s Scipio landing pad. Ogee shuffled quietly behind them, as they had reasoned that being attended by a protocol droid would make them look more important.

Poorly dressed for the frigid weather, they both walked briskly toward the door, while Ben provided a shivering crash course in galactic financial systems and history. He continued on with his explanation as they entered the citadel, and Rey found herself more focused on the almost painful sensation the warm air produced on her cold fingers. Ben seemed to notice, and as he continued to explain, Ben took both of her hands, rubbing them between his, and then pulling her into an embrace, briskly rubbing her back. The sensation of his hard, flawlessly sculpted body through his thin shirt did exactly nothing to help her focus on the painfully boring history of the Banking Clan. Something about them being taken over by the Empire, but allowed to become semi-independent again with the New Republic, and Force only knew whose side they were on now.

Ben and Rey were greeted by a well-dressed functionary, led to an elegant antichamber, and asked to wait, while said functionary rushed off to inform the five executives that had jurisdiction over important accounts and transactions. As they waited, Rey’s eyes idly wandered around the room until Ben called out startlingly, “Oh shit! Look!” He directed her attention to a small holodisplay at one end of the room, no doubt present to entertain guests. It seemed to be silently playing some ubiquitous and dull news program, but the image projected made her heart leap with recognition. A blue-tinted image of a dark arena surrounding a claw-like throne, with two barely identifiable individuals at the center, both holding blue lightsabers. 

There was no doubt in her mind what she was seeing. She and Ben exchanged glances.

“Where do you think they got the footage?” Rey asked, shocked but oddly mesmerized to see herself on the news.

Ben shrugged. “There were thousands of people there. One of the cultists must have been uploading.” Sure enough, the feed stopped abruptly with Palpatine’s nonsensical explosion. 

But they were distracted, or rather their distraction was ended by the reentry of the functionary. “The _Executive_ Five will see you now.”

They were led into a large room, with five huge screens arranged in a semicircle above them. Four screens showed elderly-looking Muuns, and one showed a token human male. Ogee stood unobtrusively toward the back of the room.

“Supreme Leader,” the center Muun said politely. “We are so pleased to see that rumors of your demise were unfounded. What can the Banking Clan do for you today?”

Ben drew in a deep breath. “I would like to transfer some funds.”

The left Muun nodded, glancing at Rey. “Is this the _witness_ to the transaction?”

Rey glanced at Ben, who gave a slight nod. “Yes.”

“Very good,” said the Muun. “First, we will need to verify both of your identities.”

A protocol droid came shuffling in, bearing a silver tray, and holding it out before Rey and Ben. The tray had what looked like a pair of fiber wads, on the end of short, golden rods.

Rey had no idea what they were expected to do with them. Fortunately, Ben seemed to know. He picked one up, jammed it in mouth, and seemed to stir it around a bit, before placing it back on the tray. Rey copied him, still wondering what this was supposed to be for. Ben sensed her question. “The Banking Clan doesn’t mess around when it comes to identity checks. Genetic profile,” he whispered, as the protocol droid withdrew with the tray.

“Now, how much would you like to transfer?” the center Muun inquired.

“All of it,” Ben declared boldly. Was he starting with an unacceptable demand to start, to give room for negotiation?

Rey waited for the Muun to balk, or at least barrage him with questions and counter offers, but instead, they all just nodded. “Very good, sir.”

Rey turned to Ben and smiled, glad things had gone so smoothly. She found that Ben’s vibes were full of apprehension. 

Ben cleared his throat before speaking. “And what is the balance?”

The left Muun smiled blandly. “17.62 million credits, sir.”

Rey smiled again, having barely ever imagined such riches.

Ben’s right eye gave a twitch, and his vibes filled with dismay. “What happened to the rest of it?”

The Muun then explained that there had been a large number of small transactions in the past week, no doubt alluding to the embezzlement that Ben had predicted.

“The carrion birds didn’t waste any time, did they?” Ben muttered.

Rey leaned over, speaking soothingly. “17 million is still a _lot_ of money.”

Ben outright scoffed at her. “Clearly you’ve never seen a military budget before.” Ben fell silent, his vibes screaming with disappointment. Their plan was falling apart before their eyes. The Resistance might never take them back. Rey’s eyes filled with tears.

At that moment, she saw another Muun enter behind the center executive, leaning over to whisper something in his ear. All that Rey could make out was the phrase _we triple checked._ The audio channel went silent, as the five executives engaged in a rapid private conversation.

The center Muun’s eyes fixed on Rey, projecting a sense of fear and wonder.

Rey’s stomach clenched. The genetic profile - they _knew._ Knew her deepest, darkest secret. For a moment, she felt like she might wretch at the mere thought that these strangers knew something that she had only ever confided in her closest friends. How could they know? 

They must have had Sheev Palpatine on file.

Even in her distress, her mind continued to turn over the situation. If they had Palpatine on file, then he must have had an account. And Palpatine was the most corrupt politician in history - he almost certainly had a freighter load of creds stashed away somewhere. A whole new possibility began to take shape in her mind.

But no. She couldn’t. She didn’t want Palpatine’s money. The idea of laying claim to _anything_ of his made her sick. She didn’t want to know how many beings had suffered to make that fortune. No. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. It was just so… Icky.

And yet… another conflicting narrative was formed in Rey’s mind. After all, you could take the girl out of the scavenger’s life, but you couldn’t take the scavenger out of the girl. No one who’d grown up as poor as Rey, as hungry as Rey, was ever likely to let perfectly good creds just molder away. No way, especially when those creds might help her friends, her cause, enable her to move forward with her life’s work, _and_ be with the man she loved. After all, she had arguably spent most of her life living off the rusting crumbs from Palpatine’s evil table.

She envisioned a particularly valuable piece of salvage. Something that would have fed her for a week. But it was covered in stinking, rancid grease and crawling insects. What would she have done? Leave it there, just because it was disgusting? Hell no. She would have held her breath, scraped off the filth, and made all sorts of terrified squeals at the bugs. But she would have done it.

But she had to think this through, before saying something. She realized that claiming Palpatine’s fortune would also mean owning her Palpatine heritage. Probably publically. People would ask where she suddenly got millions of credits. It might even mean taking the name. _Rey Palpatine_ . She had never allowed herself to put those proper nouns together into a full name. _Rey Palpatine._

 _Sheev_ Palpatine was horrible. But that didn’t mean that _Rey_ Palpatine had to be. After all, hadn’t she already had multiple opportunities to become a galactic tyrant, but had rejected it each time? She had _defeated_ Sheev Palpatine. And now she could use his disgusting money to help rebuild the galaxy he had ravaged.

This wasn’t for her. This was for the Resistance. For Finn and Poe. For the Jedi. For her future with Ben.

She turned to look at him, finding him silently gazing back at her. He knew what she was thinking of doing; his face—and his vibes—were extremely interested, but also surprisingly non-committal. As if he didn’t dare influence her one way or the other. He gave her a slight, patient smile, and gently squeezed her hand, silently communicating his support for whatever decision she made.

With a heavy sense of destiny, Rey stood from her chair. “That’s right. I’m his granddaughter.” She paused. _Just say it. Say it_ . “Rey…" _SAY IT!_ "Rey Palpatine.”

The center executive feigned composure, but still radiated a sense of fear. “We welcome you, my lady.”

So she was _my lady_ now. That was a step in the right direction. Rey drew in another deep breath. “I’m here for my grandfather's account.”

The Muun cleared his throat. “I’m afraid he left no will.”

_Of course he didn’t. He didn’t plan on ever dying._

“You may be his only known descendant,” the executive continued, “but there is no proof that you are his _heir.”_

Rey considered that, thinking furiously. She glanced at Ben, and could tell that he understood what she was doing. “Go ahead, Rey. _Prove_ it.”

Summoning all of her nerve, Rey stood, raised a hand, and shot lightening from her fingertips. It wasn’t much more than a spark, but all five bankers dove behind their desks despite presumably not even being in the same room.

“Is that _heir_ enough for you?!” Rey shouted. She then attempted something like an evil cackle, but it came out sounding like a series of overloud sarcastic guffaws, at some joke that wasn’t funny.

The executive Muun slowly peeked up from behind his desk.

Ben stood. He was the son of Han Solo. Of course he knew a good scam when he saw one, and he knew how to improvise. “You don’t want to make her angry,” he told them. “And I’d bet creds to buttersweet puffs that you know _exactly_ what a Sith is capable of, seeing as one of them used to run this place. I’d even bet at least one of you used to work for him.”

Still more fear from the executive, even as he attempted to regain his composure. “I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.”

Ben gave a poisonous grin. “Higo. Damask.”

Rey silently mouthed the word _who,_ and Ben elaborated. “Also known as Darth Plagueis.”

All four of the Muun flinched, as if Ben had flung a vile curse at them. The token human just looked confused.

Sensing he’d made headway, Ben continued on. “And I don't doubt for a second that someone as ruthless as Siddeous would have made sure to become Damask’s heir before killing him.”

The Muun looked terrified. The human still looked completely lost.

The center executive summoned the courage to speak. “I am sorry, my lady. We have laws and policies.” He sounded genuinely apologetic, as if he would have happily thrown Palpatine’s fortune at her, just to get her out of the building. “We must have proof that Palpatine intended to leave his estate to you.”

“And how would I prove that?” Rey asked. At that moment, she was wondering if that so-recently-public holovid might be used to her advantage.

“You would need to provide a voice-printed statement designating you as his heir, from either Palpatine himself or someone he officially authorized to speak on his behalf.”

Rey grinned, and motioned for Ogee to come forward. “Sentinels were to be obeyed, like Palpatine himself, weren’t they?”

“Yes,” Ogee said simply. 

“Tell them that I am Palpatine’s heir.”

Ogee was quick to oblige. “Rey is Palpatine’s heir.”

The executives silently conferred again, and the center executive turned to face Rey. “Your proof is _acceptable_ , Lady Palpatine. Your current balance is 978.29 quintillion credits.”

* * *

The next several hours were spent filling out documentation, and directing the money to the various accounts and investments that funded the Resistance. Rey had just finished what was said to be the last document, and her eyes rested on Ben again. She found him looking at her, clearly deep in thought, and for the first time in a while, she found herself unable to guess what he was thinking. “You are looking very thoughtful.”

“It’s just that - you did it,” he replied softly. “You _actually_ did it.”

“Did _what_?”

“You -” he gave a pensive pause. “You accepted your family’s dark legacy, without letting it define you. Without letting it _consume_ you.”

She turned slightly, taking his other hand, looking up into his dark eyes. “ _I_ had help.”

Ben gave a wistful nod.

“I never had to suffer under it alone,” she paused, her voice becoming less sentimental. “And I also didn’t have to deal with relentless psychic sabotage of my coping response.” 

He actually smiled slightly at that, his vibes shimmering with the relief of finally being understood. “I guess we’ve already established that you’re better at everything,” he said with an odd combination of sarcasm and sincere admiration. “You know that I -”

He was interrupted by the entrance of a functionary, followed by a protocol droid. “I beg your pardon, Lady Palpatine, but there are also the contents of your vault. This is the only item it contained.”

Rey and Ben exchanged glances, as the protocol droid shuffled forward, holding out a small, intricately carved wooden box. Rey decided that she wasn’t surprised that Palpatine had such a minimalist treasure. He didn’t seem like the type for mountains of beskar and jewels. Though it did strike her as a little odd that it would be stored in an actual, secure bank, instead of some creepy trap-filled tomb.

The functionary continued. “The only instructions we were left was that the item inside the box must never be physically touched.”

Rey picked up the box, opening it delicately, as if it might be a bomb. Instead, the contents of the box was a small, palm-sized object, not unlike a wayfinder or holocron, save that it appeared to be made of a solid black stone.

The functionary and droid left, giving the vague impression that he was glad to no longer have the sinister object in his care.

Rey held up the box, examining the carvings. “It’s in ancient Sith,” she groaned, knowing what a pain it would be to get it translated.

“I beg your pardon mistress,” Ogee chimed in, in his old, croaking voice. “I would be happy to translate the runes for you.”

Rey supposed that Babu must have given the droid that capability. He probably assumed that it would be useful to her, like she was _routinely_ examining Sith carvings. She handed the box to Ogee.

“Herein are contained the lives of planet Serepta, their lifeforce imbued on this jewel. Touch.”

Rey and Ben again exchanged glances. “That’s all it says? _Touch?_ ”

“Yes, mistress.”

“It must be a sort of vessel to store lifeforce,” Ben said. “Plagueis was said to have a particular interest in immortality.”

Rey looked more closely at the object. “I wonder…”

“What?” Ben inquired.

“No, it’s too dangerous, and obviously heinously evil in origin.” She paused. “But for the sake of argument, I wonder if it could be used -” she met Ben’s eyes, “to sever your dependence on my lifeforce.”

His gaze dropped to the floor, and he looked decidedly melancholy. “You want to sever our bond?”

“No, no. Not our _bond_ . We are the _two that are one._ I don’t think there’s any power in the galaxy that could do that. I mean your _dependence_ on _my_ lifeforce.”

To her surprise, that didn’t seem to reassure him. “You don’t like having me around all the time?”

“I don’t like that I risk killing you every time I want a few minutes to myself! What if you coming back was a one-time thing?!”

Ben nodded, apparently slightly reassured. “Luke was kind of evasive about that.”

“But it doesn’t matter,” Rey continued. “Even if that thing _does_ have that capability, it’s too dangerous.”

“What makes you say that?”

“It belonged to Palpatine. He has presumably had access to it this whole time, could have sent one of his cronies to get it for him. There has to be a damn good reason why he never used it. And I have a feeling that the reason is probably that it’s so dangerous as to not be worth the risk. It might even be a trap.”

Ben nodded again. “Yeah, those instructions are pretty suspiciously vague.” He paused, again sounding decidedly insecure. “I’m sorry that you’re _stuck_ with me.”

* * *

The ghostly Jedi continued their heated discussion. 

“Let’s not forget that there was a lot of other stuff that didn’t make any sense,” Luke pointed out.

On this, they all seemed to agree, and nods were exchanged.

“What the hell was with the dagger thing?” Mace Windu asked no one in particular.

“Fucking dumb, that was,” Master Yoda muttered.

Obi-Wan decided to elaborate. “Insulting to the intelligence. A dagger created AFTER the fall of the Empire, and apparently given to an idiot crony who lost it, pointing the way to ANOTHER object that pointed the way to the Emperor, left unguarded, exactly where anyone with a brain could have predicted such an artifact might be left? Not to mention that the concept itself made no sense. How would she have known where to stand?”

“Personally, I take more issue with the pacing,” Luminara Unduli added. “All of that happened in the course of 16 hours? Traveling to multiple planets? Never two seconds together in order to allow any one event to have an emotional impact?”

“The stuff with Lando didn’t make a lick of sense either,” Luke declared. “First of all, everyone acts like he’s an old friend despite all but Chewie never having met him in their lives. Also, the sophisticated, cosmopolitan player notorious for his appreciation of the finer things, is a desert hermit for some reason? And despite being a hermit for a decade and a half -”

Anakin cut in. “What is _with_ people and becoming hermits?” he asked rhetorically.

Luke resumed. “- Lando is able to rally THE ENTIRE GALAXY, in a matter of hours? Even after Leia’s pleas for help have been ignored?”

Ahsoka put her finger to her chin in mock puzzlement. “Hmm, a woman is ignored, but people listen when a man says the exact same thing, I wonder…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to the incredible Perry Downing! And thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment/review!
> 
> Next Time: Excessive Literary References, Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please review! I totally depend on those to stay motivated...


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